[ELIJAH COMES FIRST -
PART III]
Restoration
first. In the passage from
Joel just quoted, when read in the context in which it
was given, the inspired prophet said, "And it shall come
to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit on all flesh.” After what? Read
the verses preceding in the 2nd chapter of Joel and
you will discover that God promised a restoration. In
Joel's day the people of Israel, because of their
unfaithfulness to the Lord, were suffering from drought,
famine and a locust plague. The land was languishing,
and being stripped (see Joel, chap. 1). But Joel was to
lift up his voice like a trumpet and call the people to
return to the Lord with
fasting and prayer (Joel 2:1, 12-18). Then the Lord
promised to RESTORE what had been lost (Joel 2-25), by
sending rain and blessing them again with "grain
and wine and oil,” as well as driving off the "locust
army" (see Joel 2:19-30). In God's symbolic language,
"grain" stands for the WORD (the living Bread),
wine pictures JOY and BLESSINGS, and oil represents the
SPIRIT. The natural nation of
Israel lost natural resources through natural disasters.
This is a type of how spiritual Israel has lost
spiritual resources through spiritual disasters. But as
God restored to natural Israel what was lost, so will He
restore to the church what has been lost. Let us
look further. . .
Locusts.
The locust plague which had devastated the land
of Israel is a type of the demonic hosts of Satan coming
against the church. Through the "wiles" of Satan (Eph.
6:11), the church was gradually deceived and "seduced"
into leaving her first love, and falling away from the
truth (Rev. 2:4; II Thess.2:3). Then followed in time
conditions of drought (lack of the "rain" of the
Spirit), and famine (lack of hearing the Word of God—see
Amos 8:11). In the land of Palestine, locusts always
come in times of drought, stripping the land of its
remaining vegetation. True to this type, when the church
began to experience spiritual drought and famine, the
Satanic inspired doctrines of Balaam (compromise
with the pagan world—Rev. 2:14), the doctrine of the
Nicolaitanes (political power of the clergy and
subjection of the people in ignorance and
superstition—Rev. 2:16), and the seducing tactics of
Jezebel (mixing pagan religious ideas and practices with
Christianity—Rev. 2-20), began to STRIP THE CHURCH of
its remaining spiritual life and power. Giving in to
"seducing spirits and doctrines of devils" became
common; two of which Paul mentions as "forbidding (the
clergy) to marry, and commanding to abstain from
meats (on certain days, etc.)”—I Tim.
4:1-3).
Opening of
the pit. Rev. 9:1-4 definitely shows that locusts
are a type of Satanic spirits.
The symbolic picture
shows the pit being opened and the demonic spirits of
Satan in the form of locusts, going forth to "torment"
mankind. In 9:2, we read that the sun was darkened by
their activity. The sun is a type of Christianity and
the church, which has been "darkened" (robbed of
its light and power in relation to the people) because
of the corrupting tactics of Satanic spirits. But though
the "sun" of traditional "churchianity" is being
darkened, there is another side of the picture, and
it fits the pattern of God's promise to deliver Israel
from the locusts and their devastation, and restore
what had been lost, when they would heed His call to
"return [ ] even to me with all your heart, and
with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning
(repentance)"—Joel 2:12.
Sevenfold
brighter. Isaiah speaks of a
day when "the light of the sun shall be sevenfold, as
the light of seven days, in the day that the Lord binds up the breach of his people
and heals the stroke of
their wound" (Isa. 30:26). The number seven symbolizes
the church and also speaks of the completed cycle or
consummation of this age. Therefore as we reach the
climax of God's plan for this age, a segment of God's
people are going to shine forth in the glory and power
of Christ SEVEN TIMES BRIGHTER than ever before. This
will take place when the Lord "binds up the breach"
(restores UNITY) among His people, and "heals the stroke
of their wound (restores SPIRITUAL HEALTH)" and VITALITY
through the cleansing and refreshing of His Word and
Spirit. The beginning of this work is already evident in
what the Lord is now doing among many spirit-filled
Christians of all backgrounds. Surely we are beginning
to see Hosea's prophecy fulfilled in our day: "Come, and
let us return to the Lord:
for he has torn and he will
heal us; he has smitten, and
he will bind us up. After two days (2,000 years—11 Pet.
3:8) will he revive us: in the third day (the ‘day of
the Lord’—now dawning) he will raise us up, and we shall
live in his sight. Then shall we know, if we follow on
to know the Lord; his going forth is prepared as
the morning; and he shall come to us as the rain, as the
latter and former rain to
the earth." (Hos. 6:1-3.)
Recovery. "Restoration" means
the recovery of that which has been lost; to bring back,
or put back into the former or original state. God moves
by His Spirit, not just so that we might be blessed, but
that His Church (His spiritual "house" or "temple")
might once again be BUILT UP and RESTORED out of the
"ruin" into which it has fallen. The recovery of the
spiritual truths and practices of the New Testament
church results in spiritual renewal and power.
God's order as given in Acts 3:17-21 is
REVELATION, REPENTANCE, REFRESHING, RESTITUTION
(restoration), and RETURN of Christ. Christ must remain
in the heavens until the "times of restitution of all
things" which God has spoken
by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world
began" (Acts 3:21). This does not mean that Christ
remains in heaven until all things spoken by the
prophets are restored, for the great millennium coming
is itself a time of restoration when many things,
including paradise conditions on this earth, will be
restored. But restoration begins with the church, the
house of God, through the judgments of God (I Pet.
4:17). We are now in the beginnings of the times of
restitution or restoration, and since the church is
God's instrument during this age of grace, then the
church must be restored to its pristine glory and power
before this age ends.
Prophet of
restoration. The spirit and ministry of Elijah is
especially associated with restoration.
In his prayer in I Kings 18:37, he uses an
expression meaning restoration: "turned their heart back
again.” John the Baptist was to go forth in the "spirit
and power of Elijah"(Lk. 1:17). When the disciples
asked Jesus concerning Elijah, He said, "Elijah is
coming and will restore all things; but I say to you,
that Elijah already came, and they did not recognize
him, but did to him whatever they wished. . . Then the
disciples understood that He had spoken to them about
John the Baptist" (Mt. 17:10-13). But we have
already seen that John the Baptist's ministry was
only a partial and preliminary fulfillment of the Elijah
prophecy. OUR DAY must see the final and complete
fulfillment of the restoration ministry of Elijah. John
the Baptist was "filled with the Holy Spirit, even from
his mother's womb" (Lk. 1:15). John brought a
preliminary and preparatory move of the Spirit before
Jesus came to His people. Even so in this end time; God
is moving now by His Spirit, in what we might call the
"restoration rain,” which shall culminate in the "double
portion" rain spoken by Joel the prophet: "Be glad then,
[ ] children of Zion (we are children of the heavenly
Zion—Gal. 4:26, Heb. 12:22-23), and rejoice in the Lord
your God: for he has given
you the former rain moderately (this is the
restoration of the "early" or Pentecostal rain which
came on the church in its beginning), and he will cause
to come down for you the rain, the former rain, and the
latter rain in the first month (the 'double portion')."
Joel 2:23.
Prophet of
revelation. Restoration can come only through
revelation of the truth. Jesus said, "You shall know the truth and
the truth shall make you free" (John 8:32). Free from
the corruptions of Satan which bring bondage. When
John came on the scene, he
found a nation that was in bondage because the Divine
Revelation God had given them was "encrusted" and
overlaid by the "traditions of the elders" (Mark 7:3-I
I), and as a result the Word of God was made of "no effect" (without life and
power). Thus "THE WAY" of truth and righteousness which
God had given Israel, was no longer a straight, level
"path" for the nation to travel on toward its appointed
destiny. John's task was to renew and restore the Divine
path by turning the people back to the truth of God's
ways. His message, as foretold by Isaiah was:
"Prepare [ ] THE WAY of the Lord, make straight in the
desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be
exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low:
and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough
places plain" (Isa. 40:3-4).
He could only straighten out the "crooked" ways
they were walking in by calling them from their ways
back to God's ways.
Prophet of
repentance. In calling the people
back to God's ways, he commanded them to REPENT; and the
people went to be baptized of him, "confessing their
sins" (Mt. 3:6). Repentance means a change of mind
and heart, leading to a change of action. John spoke to
the people thus: "Bring forth therefore fruits
worthy of repentance, and begin not to say within
yourselves, we have Abraham for our father; for I say to you, that God is able of
these stones to raise up children to Abraham. And now also
the axe is laid to the root
of the trees: every tree therefore which brings not forth good fruit is [cut]
down, and cast into the fire" (Luke 3:8-9). This message
is applicable to our day, for the church has followed in
the "way" of Israel: substituting man's ways for God's
ways, "encrusting" the Word of God by religious
traditions, and failing to enter the "covenant land" of
spiritual blessing and power through unbelief. The
"axe" of divine truth and judgment is now laid at the
root of all man-made ways and religious systems. All are
going to be "[cut] down" and cast into the "fiery"
tribulation which is coming on the earth (see Rev. 2:22;
3:16). The "fire" (of tribulation) is going to TRY every
man's WORK of what sort it is (see I Cor. 3:12-15). The
question is not so much with whom we are working in our
affiliation (in or out of a denomination), but rather
HOW FREE are we to BUILD with the "gold, silver, and
precious stones" of God's truth and ways, rather than
the "wood, hay, and stubble" of man's traditions and
ways.
God's
call. God's call to those
who have ears to hear is REPENT and COME OUT of her
(religious Babylon—the confusion and bondage of man's
ways) MY PEOPLE, "that you
be not partakers of her sins, and that you receive not of her plagues"
(Rev. 18:4). Boast not in either your physical OR
religious pedigree. Say not within yourselves, "We have
Abraham (or some religious group or denomination)
as our father (putting your TRUST in such a
relationship): for I say to
you, that God is able of these stones to raise up
children to Abraham." And THAT is just what He is
doing! He is "raising up"
and "shaping" LIVING STONES (I Pet. 2:5) which are
"built on the foundation of
the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being
the chief cornerstone. In whom all the building fitly
framed together grows into a
holy temple in the Lord" (Eph. 2:20-21). And in doing
so, He is breaking through all religious barriers that
man has erected, and Christians of all backgrounds are
beginning to "flow together" as never before,
regardless of what their "affiliation" might be as far
as fellowship and worship.
No one
man. Elijah and John the
Baptist were both called to minister to a small nation
within a very small geographical location on the earth.
For how long a period John the Baptist's ministry
continued, we do not know. But that one lone man could
cover the land through itinerant preaching and prepare
the people for the coming of the Messiah.
However, when Christ comes again, He will return
to the whole world, not to just one small nation, so
that it will take a worldwide preparatory ministry
through many chosen vessels. Thus the "Eiijah" for our
day is not one man, but rather a movement involving many
servants of the Lord. No person or group
can say "I" or "we" are "it.” "It" is a move of the
Spirit encompassing many. When John the Baptist was
asked who he was, he replied, "I am the VOICE of one
crying in the wilderness" (John 1:23). He indicated by
such an answer that who he was (personally) was
unimportant. He had not the slightest desire to
exalt himself as an individual, or to build something
around himself. He felt no jealousy
or rivalry toward anyone. His answer to
those who came to him with information that Jesus was
baptizing and all men were coming to Him was this: "A
man can receive nothing except it be given him from
heaven. . . He (Christ) must increase, but I must
decrease." The same spirit of self-effacement must
be manifest today among those who are CRYING out this
last day message of preparation.
Individual personalities are of little
importance, but the VOICE (of prophetic authority) must
be heard in the land. Any ministry that we may have has
been given to us from heaven and there is no occasion
for boasting or self-exaltation. We must not call
attention to ourselves, but MAGNIFY
CHRIST.
Unity.
John the Baptist set the PATTERN of oneness or UNITY
when he said, "I am the voice of ONE crying." Not many
voices, but ONE. If we are to "Make ready a people
prepared for the Lord" (Lk. 1:17), we must realize that
this people is ONE BODY IN THE LORD, and that we must be
"endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond
of peace. (For) there is one body, and one Spirit, even
as you are called in one
hope of your calling: One Lord, one faith, one baptism.
One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through
all, and in you all" (Eph. 4:3-6). There should be no
rivalries, no jealousies or sectarian spirit among
those who are seeking to move out in this last day
message and ministry; but ONE BODY beginning to function
in God's divine order with each ministry and each member
of the Body functioning as the Spirit equips and
directs, and in subjection to one another in love (Eph.
5:21; I Pet. 5:5).
Let Christ
Increase. Our personal ambitions must be replaced by
the desire to see the Lord INCREASE in the "church which
is His Body” (Eph. 2:22-23), as EACH MEMBER develops in
his or her ministry. The five gift-ministries of Eph.
4:11 are "for the equipping of the saints for the work
of service (ministry), to the building up of the
body of Christ" (New American Standard). Each ministry
must fulfill his function, and yet be willing to
decrease that the Lord might increase IN THE WHOLE BODY.
"But speaking truth in love, may grow up into him in all
things, which is the head, even Christ: from whom the
whole body, fitly joined together and compacted by that
which every joint supplies,
according to the effective
working in the measure of every part, makes the increase of the body to the edifying of itself in
love" (Eph. 4:15-16).
Turning the
hearts. Let's look again at
the Elijah prophecy of Malachi 4:5-6. "Behold, I will
send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of
the great and dreadful day of the Lord. And he shall
turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the
heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and
strike the earth with a
curse." God places great importance on His divine order,
whether in the home or in the church. We cannot ignore
the importance of the headship and responsibility of
fathers, and proper submission to authority in the
divine arrangement of the family and the church. It is
the BREAKDOWN of the home (and the consequent effect in
all society) that is causing the "curse" of divine
judgment to fall on the earth. "Lawlessness" is
rampant in every segment of society, even as Jesus
said it would be (Mt. 24:12). It is not just the
increase of crime and violence that reflects this spirit
of lawlessness, but the "militancy" that is evident in
the "demanding spirit" of "I am going to get what is
coming to me OR ELSE," with strikes, marches,
demonstrations, disruptions, destruction of the
rights and property of others, defying and
disobeying the law in various non-violent or
semi-violent ways; and much of this even aided and
abetted by some Churches and Ministers. Then there is
the moral breakdown, also aided and abetted by many
Churches and Ministers who reject the divine authority
of the Word of God, teach the "new morality,” "situation
ethics," etc., all fulfilling Jesus' prophetic words in
Mt. 7:21, concerning those who would SAY "Lord, Lord,"
but would not do the will of His heavenly Father. Such,
said He, are those who "work iniquity" (the Gr. word
means "lawlessness"). It is the "fathers,"
who have the authority and responsibility under God,
whose hearts need to be TURNED BACK to their children,
to TEACH, LEAD, and SET the right EXAMPLE, in order to
stem the tide of lawlessness.
Spiritual
fathers. The "fathers" spoken of in the prophetic
utterance, whose hearts are to be "turned back" by an
Elijah ministry, can be both natural fathers, [and] the
spiritual fathers (pastors) of the church. The hearts of
the pastors must be turned back to their spiritual
children (their flock). God is very
severe in His Word in His denunciation of the
pastors or shepherds who have not properly taken care of
their flocks (read Ezek. 34 and Jer. 23).
This is too large a subject to go into here; but
there are far too many "hirelings" in the pulpits of the
churches (John 10:12-13). They don't feed the people
with the "meat" of the Word of God, and they do not have
a heart to the people as
they should, but to their
own career, success, popularity in the eyes of people,
etc. Isaiah states it in
this way: "they all look to their own way, every one for
his gain, from his quarter" (Isa. 56:11). But God made a
promise, and I believe He is fulfilling it in this day:
"And I will gather the remnant of my flock out of all
countries whither I have driven them, and will bring
them again to their folds; and they shall be fruitful
and increase. And I will set up shepherds over them
which shall feed them: and they shall fear no more, nor
be dismayed, neither shall they be lacking, says the Lord" (Jer. 23:3-4).
We can praise God that He is turning the hearts of the
fathers (pastors) back to their flocks. And this is
bringing to pass the other half of the promise, "and the
heart of the children to their fathers (pastors)," as
hungry hearts seek out those true shepherds who will
feed and care for them, and then render to these shepherds the
true submission and support which God
desires.
Another
phase of truth. The "turning of the hearts of the
children to their fathers" has another phase of truth.
We sometimes refer to those men whom Christ chose and
appointed as apostles as "church fathers." Paul
indicates that he was a spiritual father to the
Corinthian church (I Cor. 4:15). The early Christians
"continued steadfastly" in the APOSTLES' doctrine (Acts 2:42). In
other words, their hearts were to their spiritual fathers
in the Lord. In this day, I
believe an "Elijah ministry" is turning the hearts of
God's people back to the NEW TESTAMENT and the TEACHING
of the APOSTLES. The desire is to see apostolic truth,
order and power return to the church, and this requires
bypassing all the accumulated traditions and manmade
ways of the last 1900 years and returning to the
"fountain" of truth which Christ committed to His
apostles.
The
home. We can see
yet another phase of the truth that the hearts of the
fathers would be turned back to the children and the
hearts of the children to the fathers. Among those who
are seeking to move in what the Lord is doing today,
there is a fresh emphasis on the place of the home in
God's plan, and a renewed desire to see God's
divine order for husbands, wives and children
implemented in the home. We cannot enlarge on the
subject here, as it is beyond our scope for this
booklet. But we are beginning to see as never before
that the church will only be as strong as the individual
family units which make up the church. Many have had the
strange notion that they can be "spiritual" and yet not
fulfill their proper "role" in the home as a husband and
father, or wife and mother. We MUST get back to the
basic truth that if a person is married, their
FIRST and most IMPORTANT ministry under God is to
their family. HOW WE TREAT THOSE NEAREST TO US IN OUR
IMMEDIATE FAMILY CIRCLE determines to a great extent how
"spiritual" we are in the sight of God. There are too
many, both men and women, who are out trying to minister
to others when they have failed to fulfill their
responsibilities and ministry to their own mates and
children in their own family. God help us to get our
priorities right and put first things first. This
is part of the ministry of "restoration" taking
place in our day.