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Restoration
Danny Steyne

Brothers, if someone is caught in a sin, you who are spiritual should restore him gently. But watch yourself, or you also may be tempted. {2} Carry each other's burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ. (Gal 6:1-2)

Now when Joshua was near Jericho, he looked up and saw a man standing in front of him with a drawn sword in his hand. Joshua went up to him and asked, "Are you for us or for them?" "Neither," he replied, "but as commander of the army of the LORD I have now come." Then Joshua fell facedown to the ground in reverence, and asked him, "What message does my Lord have for his servant?" (Joshua 5:13-14)

“Danny, you know that if you hang out with that guy, many of the others are going to have a difficult time with you, you are going to ostracize yourself from the major pastors in this city!” The words were reminiscent of earlier words where I had walked through a difficult season of life and others withdrew from me because of events that unfolded in my family that weren’t very pretty. I recalled that time as “the time all my friends abandoned me!”

This “brother” had been through it all. It seems that he wasn’t the perfect pastor, and he made some pretty poor choices at critical times that resulted in some parishioners getting angry with him. But then there were the variables, like rent being tripled on the church facility they had from the owner for no apparent reason… like a “brother” who devised ways to bring about this pastors demise … or the leader in his church who didn’t want their sin to be called sin… or the speaker who came in and managed to hide the fact that he was living in adultery… or simply just the apparent withdrawal of favor. I would be foolish to believe this brother was perfect… I know myself… I know many others… amazingly God made us all human! I am sure there were things he did that weren’t exactly right… but perfection is not the mark of Grace… God’s Presence in a less than perfect life is! God had and has a destiny for this brother, and it is the mark of a believer, and a mark of a leader, to restore and heal and encourage this brother towards the goal of His Destiny in Jesus.

Restoration. It’s a difficult process. It could cost you relationships, it could cost you reputation… hey, for Jesus, it cost Him His life! And yet restoration is the “final” focus for us as believers. It is the coupe de grace that God will reveal to the ages of His great and power love that works as described in Ephesians 2:7… “in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.”

Restoration is the “timing” of the Lord for His return. It is the evidence of the Lord’s presence in our midst. It is the fulfillment of His destiny in our lives and in the lives of those around us. If I can be so bold, it is what happens when God is in a people, because it is the evidence of Heaven on earth. “He must remain in heaven until the time comes for God to restore everything, as he promised long ago through his holy prophets. (Acts 3:21)

And yet restoration has taken a back seat to criticism, judgment, opinion, and debate. These four attitudes are communicated as “discernment, wisdom, correction, and righteousness” but really have nothing in common with God’s purpose for restoration.

Who is the real enemy? Where does he hail from? “Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say: "Now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Christ. For the accuser of our brothers, who accuses them before our God day and night, has been hurled down.” (Revelation 12:10) The real victory comes when accusation is hurled down! The heart of the Father is so much more for the broken than what our human self-righteousness can achieve by our criticism, innuendos, and judgments.

Maybe, just maybe, the heart of the Father is like what is in His Book. “Then I saw this pastor, this Christian leader, who was so broken and fallen, finally standing before the angel of the LORD, and Satan was standing at his right side to accuse him. (I actually had a few things to say too!) BUT THE LORD said to satan (small case on purpose!), "The LORD rebuke you, satan! The LORD, who has chosen this one, rebuke you! Is not this man a burning stick snatched from the fire?"

Now this pastor was wearing a lot of horrible stuff, that seemed to be really not fitting for the very Presence of God, I mean he was broken, and dirty, and seemed like he had really messed up… but there he was standing before the angel in all his filth and humanity. The angel said to those who were standing before him, those who “are spiritual”, those who are close enough to see and realize the humanity and failures, they are the ones he said to , "Take off his filthy clothes."

Then he said to this pastor, "See, I have taken away your sin, I’ve removed the past from you, I no longer count it against your future, I no longer remember the frailty of your human failures… AND I will put rich garments on you, garments of destiny, garments of your future, garments of all that I have proclaimed over your life from eternity past that satan thought he could destroy through accusation, and ostracizing you and causing others to find you contemptible ." (It reminded me of another man who ate pig slop and was embraced by a Father who gave him his own robe to cover his filth!)

Then I said, AH HA… “Did you see that, did you see what the Father did for this man! It’s time to prophesy life to him again… it’s time to …Father can I join in with blessing what you are blessing… will Heaven join me in the celebration of this restoration if I give this man who so many have loved to hate a word of encouragement and hope … "Put a clean turban on his head." So they put a clean turban on his head and clothed him, while the angel of the LORD stood by and watched… and smiled… and rejoiced… because this man was NOW in the place of his destiny… Clothed in his destiny … Empowered for His Destiny!!! (see Zechariah 3:1-5)

I once heard a seasoned messenger of God say, “The reason God hasn’t given the church discernment is because they would use it to criticize and destroy each other!” I absolutely know this to be true, both personally, and by observation. It is the rare servant who will use discernment to assist and help the brother who has fallen, the one who has stumbled, the one who is nowhere near the destiny that God has for their lives… but that is the call of God for us as believers.

“Brothers, if someone is caught in a sin, you who are spiritual should restore him gently. But watch yourself, or you also may be tempted.” (Galatians 6:1) The focus for most has been the “watch yourself” not the “restore gently”… and as a result many unrestored lay in heaps by the side of the road, waiting for a “good Samaritan” to come to their aid.

You see, people who have been damaged in reputation and who no longer hold the favor and attention of the “righteous” are blemishes on the good reputation that you may have. At least that’s what I’ve been told. And it is certain, that is what I have witnessed. You become guilty by association; you become “tainted” by the hand that you are trying to restore!

I love Jesus. He is so un-pharisaical. He is so radically committed to this process of healing and restoration in people’s lives that He doesn’t care what others think about Him in His practice of the Father’s Heart! It seems that Jesus was not interested in earning either a reputation or a crowd! In Matthew 11:19 Jesus Himself portrays the attitudes of others who have judged Him… “ The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, 'Here is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and "sinners." ' But wisdom is proved right by her actions." In the story of the Samaritan who was wounded and laying on the side of the road, the favor of God only rested on the one who did the Father’s Heart… the one who picked up, carried, helped, comforted, healed, and restored the fallen, broken man.

The story was never about us in the first place. It’s not my reputation that matters… if Jesus could make of Himself no reputation (Philippians 2:7)… what on earth am I trying to do by making a reputation for myself. I would much rather follow in His footsteps than any other footsteps or ministry or church or pastor or friend!

And so, we are called into this ministry of “associating” with the broken, with the warriors who once wielded swords, but now only have the ability to nurse their wounds. “All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation.” (2 Corinthians 5:18-19)

Hang out with the broken. Hang out with the ones who no one wants to hang out with… you might find Jesus there! You might find His ministry there.

You see to “restore” someone, means to absolutely bring them back to the place of their destiny and cause them to be fit again to do that which they are for! This is the ministry we’ve been called to, but yet so often run from for fear of being labeled or ostracized or or or…..

I love the ministry of Jesus. I just absolutely can’t find a greater example of any ministry that touched everybody. To those who thought they had “it” he made sure they knew that He didn’t think they did. To those who had nothing, he made sure they knew that they had everything. Blessed are the poor… blessed are those who suffer… blessed are those who thirst…. blessed are those who hunger.

The ministry of Jesus has always been a ministry of reconciliation and not a ministry of condemnation. That is the ministry we have been called to. It’s a ministry of reaching out to the broken, to the barren, to the fallen, to those who may have even experienced a season of “fame” next to us, but who through their own decision or the decisions of others, or simply because we live in a fallen world, they ended up somehow existing in the unenviable place of “outside the camp.” These are the ones I want to hang out with! I think Jesus hangs out there! I think we can sense the very robes of eternity walking through our midst when we have no fear that others will judge us because we know the One who judges justly, and He did this stuff too!

I call them bones. Once with flesh, once with life, once with purpose, once living in the destiny to which they were called, but now apparently devastated… now apparently without hope… now apparently without life… even the marrow has dried out!

I love these bones. These bones represent to me the most significant of all miracles in the Bible. They represent to me the army that couldn’t breathe that becomes the army that will overcome, overpower, overthrow the gods of this age and breathe life into this world!

Listen to the words recorded by Ezekiel in regards to the washed up, the used up, the never again, the devastated, the useless, the broken, the fallen, the dried out!

“The hand of the LORD was upon me, and he brought me out by the Spirit of the LORD and set me in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones. He led me back and forth among them, and I saw a great many bones on the floor of the valley, bones that were very dry. He asked me, "Son of man, can these bones live?" I said, "O Sovereign LORD, you alone know."

Then he said to me, "Prophesy to these bones and say to them, 'Dry bones, hear the word of the LORD! This is what the Sovereign LORD says to these bones: I will make breath enter you, and you will come to life. I will attach tendons to you and make flesh come upon you and cover you with skin; I will put breath in you, and you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the LORD.'"

So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I was prophesying, there was a noise, a rattling sound, and the bones came together, bone to bone. I looked, and tendons and flesh appeared on them and skin covered them, but there was no breath in them.

Then he said to me, "Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and say to it, 'This is what the Sovereign LORD says: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe into these slain, that they may live.'" So I prophesied as he commanded me, and breath entered them; they came to life and stood up on their feet--a vast army.

Then he said to me: "Son of man, these bones are the whole house of my people. They say, 'Our bones are dried up and our hope is gone; we are cut off.' Therefore prophesy and say to them: 'This is what the Sovereign LORD says: O my people, I am going to open your graves and bring you up from them; I will bring you back to the land of your destiny. Then you, my people, will know that I am the LORD, when I open your graves and bring you up from them. I will put my Spirit in you and you will live, and I will settle you in your own land. Then you will know that I the LORD have spoken, and I have done it, declares the LORD.'" (Ezekiel 37:1-14 NIV)

There it is … the people that will rise up as the army, aren’t the ones who are perfect … they aren’t the ones who have managed to avoid all appearance of death… they are the ones who have walked through the valley of death. These are the ones and who found that there, in that awful place, the One who is close to the brokenhearted, the One who loves raising the dead, the One who hands out the ministry of reconciliation and restoration… has given them their destiny back.

He has brought them to a place of victory and power and fullness because they have walked into the battle, they have already died, their reputation is meaningless now, their accomplishments of the past are merely works of the flesh… they have died and their life is now hidden with Christ in God… they are the walking dead men and women… they are the army of Ezekiel … they are the Army of Joel that strikes fear into the heart of the enemy, because having been slain, having been in the crucible of fire and death, the loved not their own lives… but retained the life of God in them and rose as an army that knows that God is faithful… God sustains… God restores… God gives hope… God places us back in the destiny that He ordained from the foundations of the earth, because the story is not about you or me… but GOD who is all and in all, and through whom we live and breathe and have our being!

The story is about Him… and He has chosen the foolish to confound the wise… He has chosen to give us this ministry… He has chosen to take the weak things … He has chosen an Army of Bones … against the counsel of the Pharisees, against the counsel of the naysayer, against the counsel of the self-righteous, against the counsel of the self-proclaimed prophets of purity… To those who are the broken: He has chosen you oh dry bones… He has chosen you. Stand up … it’s time for life to come back into you. Stand up… it’s time for you to be restored to your destiny. Breathe in… feel once again eternity, destiny, and purpose fill your life and restore you to the place God has called you to walk in.

To those who willingly stand in the way of restoring one who is broken: There is an army rising around you… but it’s only made up of broken soldiers … it’s time to fall on the Rock and be broken… "Therefore I tell you that the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people who will produce its fruit. He who falls on this rock will be broken to pieces, but he on whom it falls will be crushed." (Matthew 21:43-44)

The time of restoration is upon us! The Kingdom of Heaven is here! The army of Bones is rising!

Danny Steyne functions as a part of the emerging Mountain Of Worship. His book on Restoration can be ordered through MOWStore. Check out the Danny's Itinerary at http://www.mountainofworship.com/itinerary.htm