by guest host: Darrin Koone

Life for most men feels more like pressure and God sometimes orchestrates it…

Which often feels like some sort of retribution.

 10:10 (NIV)

The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.

  1. We get enticed to find an old car and fix it up.  Many Reasons…  What was yours?
  2. Then there is always something that is disrupted.  Sometimes it was the car we had earlier in life…  Or it is with he present attempt to find and restore one.
  3. But even after we get that dream car it usually needs some dismantling.
  4. As the dismantling happens we find places that need some healing.
  5. Only after all of this is a car or a soul restored.

2 Corinthians 4:7-9 (NIV)

4:7 But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. 8 We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; 9 persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.

God is continually using 5 processes in my life to give me this abundant life.

  1. Enticement – because He knows I wont go there on my own.
  2. Disruption – to give me a better agenda.
  3. Dismantling – dealing with all my false belief systems.
  4. Healing – giving me the truth and faith I will need.
  5. Restoring – allowing me to now bless others.

Disruptions are a well known fact of life.

Why disruptions happen and how we are to respond to them seem to be much more of a mystery.

  • I hate the journey.  I am all about the destination.
  • God uses disruption to thwart my agenda

Dismantling the false self is essential to restoration.

Leanne Payne describes the dilemma that we all find ourselves in.  “Born lonely, we try to fit in, to be the kind of person that will cause others to like us.  Craving and needing very much the affirmation of others, we compromise, put on any face, or many faces; we do even those things we do not like to do in order to fit in.  We are bent toward the creature, attempting to find our identity in him.  Slowly and compulsively the false self closes its hard, brittle shell around us, and our loneliness remains.”

By “bent” she is describing a posture in which we worship others by accepting what they think of us as more true than what God has told us about ourselves.

David said it very well in Psa. 51:6 “Behold, You desire truth in the innermost being, And in the hidden part You will make me know wisdom”.(NASB)

Healing the broken heart must happen for us to move forward.

Jesus said it was His mission.  When He announced his mission to the world in Luke 4 He quoted from the passage below.

(Isa 61:1-2 NIV) “The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me, because the LORD has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, {2} to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn,…”

So this is what He is after.  Anytime my life seems disrupted I start asking Jesus what he is after in me.

Ultimately restoration is the goal Jesus is seeking for us.

(Luke 19:5-10 NIV) “When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today.” {6} So he came down at once and welcomed him gladly. {7} All the people saw this and began to mutter, “He has gone to be the guest of a ‘sinner.'” {8} But Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, “Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount.” {9} Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham. {10} For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost.””

Perhaps we should take more time to quiet ourselves and ask Jesus what He has recovered for us and now is trying to give us a new agenda that includes preparing us to receive back that which has been stolen from us.  My guess is it will begin with our identity in Him…