Joel
Regeneration, restitution, and beyond! The book of Joel brings us to such a tremendous understanding of God’s blessing which we can live in today, if we so choose.
After a call for the nation of Israel to repent, he speaks of a day when the blessings will flow upon God’s people. They will have everything restored to them. “So I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten. The crawling locust, the consuming locust, and the chewing locust.” (2:28)
Then our Father, speaking through Joel, goes on to the promise of our Christian experience.
“And it shall come to pass afterward that I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh. Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy. Your old men shall dream dreams. Your young men shall see visions.” (2:28) These verses were those used by Peter to explain to the Jews what had happened when they first began praying in tongues. These prophesies had come to pass.
“And in that day, the mountains shall drip with new wine, the hills shall flow with milk, and all of the brooks of Judah shall be flooded with water. A fountain shall flow from the house of the Lord to water the Valley of Acacias.” (3:18)
We are living in that day. The day of restoration. The day of God’s Spirit and His blessing flowing out upon us. And it’s a wonderful place to be.
Oswald Chambers once said, “The miracle of God’s grace is that He can make the past as though it had never been.”(2:24).
Do you have moments of your past which weigh you down? Sorrow, regret, and bitterness can all come from considering the past over and over.
Okay, we all have things from our past which we would like to change; but we can’t! What’s done is done, so we have to move ahead.
If we will receive our Father’s merciful forgiveness and healing balm for all the hurts of the past, we will enter a new realm. We get to start over, drop off the burden of our mistakes, and pains, and vigorously pursue the life He has planned for us.
No wonder we want to praise Him! Our Father’s blessings for us are more abundant than we can ever know.
We just believe, receive, and walk in His purpose. Free from guilt and shame.
Revelation 5-7
As we go about our daily lives, sometimes we lose sight of life’s bigger picture. We get so caught up in the natural elements around us, we don’t even think about the spiritual world and all that it involves.
Yet our ignorance and our apathy don’t stop the reality of God’s big plans going forth. And these big plans are executed from His headquarters in heaven. The throne room.
Revelation gets us focused on some of these weightier things. While we are partaking of the rich imagery supplied in the book, we need to remember that so much of it is symbolic of extremely significant spiritual truths.
God has provided John with complicated dreamlike visions of heaven and all that it contains. He sees the throne and all of the elders and angels praising God continually. There is tremendous anticipation in heaven as all are looking for the important operations of God on earth to be revealed.
As we look at the prophetic visions, we need to let God show us what He wants us to see in them. There is much to see, and there are many different emphases which people make as they read.
End time prophecy is revealed. There are secrets which could not be unveiled until the perfect One appeared on the scene. After Jesus paid the price and returned to heaven, He was the One who could open the seals and reveal the mysteries. Thus He opens the book and begins to break the seals so that the future may be told.
Throughout Revelation we will see significant numbers. One of those is the number seven. Seven represents the completeness or wholeness of something. Seven seals, seven trumpets, seven churches, seven lampstands, and seven candlesticks. What is being said is pretty complete, wouldn’t you say?
As you read, pray and ask God to tell you what He wants you to know about this prophetic book.
As we continue to read, we should be encouraged. We win in the end. God wins, and there will be a finality to the suffering the enemy has bought on the earth.
Praise God for that!
