The Daily Word of Righteousness

The Work of Restoration, #74

And when they had laid many stripes upon them, they cast them into prison, charging the jailor to keep them safely: Who, having received such a charge, thrust them into the inner prison, and made their feet fast in the stocks. And at midnight Paul and Silas prayed, and sang praises unto God: and the prisoners heard them. And suddenly there was a great earthquake, so the foundations of the prison were shaken: and immediately all the doors were opened, and every one's bands were loosed. (Acts 16:23-26)

Numerous lashes have been laid on mankind because of the disobedience of Adam and Eve. For many centuries the "jailor" has kept us "safely" in the chains of sin and death. We have been in an "inner prison" as well as being bound by an environment that God has cursed. Our feet have been chained to the paths of uncleanness and disobedience to God.

During the dark hours of the present period, and also throughout the still darker hours which yet are to come, the saints are to pray and sing praises to God. The prisoners of Satan will hear the Church as it ministers to the Lord.

Suddenly the Lord will come to the earth and everything will be shaken. The "foundations of the prison," the seat of Satan's operations, the thrones of the evil princes of the authority of the air, the gates of Hell, shall be shaken. Everything that cannot resist the shaking will be removed.

The prison doors will swing open. The tremendous power of the Spirit of God raising the bodies of the saints will spill over to many of the prisoners of the earth and loose them from their spiritual chains, just as the power that raised Christ from the dead spilled over onto the "sleeping" saints so they arose from their graves and appeared to many in Jerusalem (Matthew 27:53).

Today is the day of liberation. Now is the Year of Jubilee. The fulfillment of the Levitical Year of Jubilee (Leviticus, Chapter 25) began on the cross of Calvary.

But Christ has been required to wait until the Father makes His enemies His footstool. We are looking forward now to the Day of Redemption, the Day in which our Lord Jesus Christ will appear and put an end to sin in the earth.

Yet the Scriptures indicate that for the present there are to be "times of refreshing" that will come from the Presence of the Lord. There are to be "times" of restoration of all things (Acts 3:19-21). It is our point of view that these periods of reviving will increase in glory until they are climaxed by the appearing of Christ in thunderous power and glory to assume His rightful lordship over the whole earth.

We believe the Spirit of God is declaring we are in one such season of revival opportunity right now and that we are to receive it and act on it.

Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times [opportunities] of refreshing [reviving] shall come from the presence of the Lord; And he shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you: whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution [restoration] of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began. (Acts 3:19-21)

To be continued.