Praise the Lord everybody!! for He is truly worthy to be praised!! I pray every one of you is enjoying God's blessing. I can't begin to tell you all how much God is doing in my life. Last week I was given the opportunity to preach the "Hour Of Power" service at First Church of Christ Holiness USA in Harlem NYC. It was truly a blessing to preach live again. It had been almost twenty years since I last ministered in my calling. Don't get me wrong I am a Watchman of God and God called me to write this blog but I was called to preach even before I knew what a Watchman was.
Writing is my gift but preaching the Gospel, that is my calling. When I look back over the journey I've been on in my walk with Jesus, from God saving me and raising me up to preach to Him sitting me down due to my disobedience and continued struggle with drug addiction, to Him finally raising me up again. I began thinking about one of my early anchoring scriptures Joel 2: 25+26 25 And I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten, the canker worm, and the Caterpillar, and the palmerworm, my great army which I sent among you.
26 And ye shall eat in plenty, and be satisfied, and praise the name of the Lord your God, that hath dealt wondrously with you: and my people shall never be ashamed.
I held on to this promise of God as drug addiction and disobedience robbed me of my ministry and the life I felt I should have had. I held on to it and held on to it thinking like most people who are holding on to it even today that all I had to do was wait on God to do His thing. To me the devil was the canker worm, the locust and the Caterpillar all rolled into one. "The devil did it, he stole everything from me" that was my way of thinking for the most part. He tricked me, It took me years to admit my own part in my down fall, that I was overtaken by my own lust and desires and that if I really wanted God to restore the years the "canker worm" had eaten I needed to go back and read the whole of Joel chapter 2.
Joel 2: 12- 18 tells us 12 Therefore also now, saith the Lord, turn ye even to me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning: 13 And rend your heart, and not your garments, and turn unto the Lord your God: for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repenteth him of the evil.
14 Who knoweth if he will return and repent, and leave a blessing behind him; even a meat offering and a drink offering unto the Lord your God?
15 Blow the trumpet in Zion, sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly:
16 Gather the people, sanctify the congregation, assemble the elders, gather the children, and those that suck the breasts: let the bridegroom go forth of his chamber, and the bride out of her closet.
17 Let the priests, the ministers of the Lord, weep between the porch and the altar, and let them say, Spare thy people, O Lord, and give not thine heritage to reproach, that the heathen should rule over them: wherefore should they say among the people, Where is their God?
18 Then will the Lord be jealous for his land, and pity his people.
First of all I gave my years to the canker worm to eat and then I asked God to restore what I had forsaken through my own behavior and weakness. Then I just stood around waiting on God, but God said in verses 12 and 13 that we must turn from our wicked ways back unto Him with all our hearts and with fasting, weeping and mourning(Godly sorrow). Fasting, weeping and mourning are action words meaning you just can't sit around waiting for them to happen, you have to make them happen if you want God to make things happen.
When I sought after God to the point where any sin in my life made me sick, yes I mean physically ill, that is when our relationship grew stronger and He began my restoration. Don't spend your time waiting on God to restore what you gave away to be eaten by various pest, you turn to Him, repent with Godly sorrow and fasting and He will incline His ear to you and begin your restoration. I know, He's doing it for me right now.
God Bless You All, Brother Darrell, Speaking Off The Wall
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