Hope, Healing & Freedom Podcast: Episode 94
TRANSCRIPT
Did you know that we, you, and I, get to team with God to see His Kingdom come to earth? Yes! For His own reasons God has chosen to work through you and me to bring healing and restoration to His Children. And the result of that restoration is the subject of this podcast.
I’m Lee Whitman with Restoring the Foundations and I welcome you into this very special version of the Hope Healing and Freedom podcast. I am continually dumbfounded that God has chosen to work through people like you and me to bring restoration to His Children. I totally believe that He could bring about restoration all by Himself. After all He is God.
I am going to admit right up front that I am a big proponent of RTF ministry because it has changed my life and marriage. But not only has it changed my life, we see it changing the lives of people around the world on a regular basis. We just heard today from some our RTF ministers in Singapore how God is using RTF to change lives in Singapore and in the Philippines and Japan. And what happens when people’s lives are changed?
Today’s scripture is quite long but it is packed with an amazing future. It is Isaiah 61:1-7
The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me,
Because the Lord anointed me
To bring good news to the poor;
He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
To proclaim release to captives
The recovery of sight to the blind
And freedom to prisoners;
2 To proclaim the favorable year of the Lord
And the day of vengeance of our God;
To comfort all who mourn,
3 To grant those who mourn in Zion,
Giving them a garland instead of ashes,
The oil of gladness instead of mourning,
The cloak of praise instead of a disheartened spirit.
So they will be called oaks of righteousness,
The planting of the Lord, that He may be glorified.
4 Then they will rebuild the ancient ruins,
They will raise up the former devastations;
And they will repair the ruined cities,
The desolations of many generations.
5 Strangers will stand and pasture your flocks,
And foreigners will be your farmers and your vinedressers.
6 But you will be called the priests of the Lord;
You will be spoken of as ministers of our God.
You will eat the wealth of nations,
And you will boast in their riches.
7 Instead of your shame you will have a double portion,
And instead of humiliation they will shout for joy over their portion.
Therefore they will possess a double portion in their land,
Everlasting joy will be theirs.
This is the passage of scripture that Jesus quoted from in the temple found in Luke 4:18. After reading these words Jesus says, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” In other words, this is what Jesus came to do, this is His mission statement. And the exciting part is we get to team with God to bring this healing and restoration to earth. Lee, are you saying that it is RTF and not Jesus that is bringing the restoration? Of course not. RTF sets the table for people to have an encounter with Jesus and He is the one who brings the healing and restoration.
RTF teams with God by ministering to these four areas that hold people bondage found in this passage.
“The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me,
Because the Lord anointed me
To bring good news to the poor”
Poverty is often something that is inherited. People can easily inherit a poverty mindset from their ancestors. People who inherit a poverty mindset do not know how to get out of their lifestyle and reach for anything better. This curse holds them captive to poverty. RTF breaks these inherited curses and the generational pressure that comes down the family line which enables people to expect more. There are many other generational curses that people inherit from their ancestors that RTF gets to team with God to free them from.
“He has sent me tobind up the brokenhearted.” One of my favorite parts of RTF ministry is minister healing to the broken hearted. Jesus is so good at bringing His healing and He does it in an intimate and individual way. Why can’t people go to Jesus for themselves and receive His heart healing? They can, but many don’t because they first of all don’t know that this healing of the heart is available, and second because they don’t know how to position themselves to receive His healing. When someone goes through RTF ministry, they are taught the scriptural basis for heart healing, then they will be led by the minister to receive heart healing ministry for themselves. They will also be taught how to receive more heart healing ministry for themselves. Cindi and I call this porch time. We sit on our back porch and allow Jesus to bring healing to our hearts.
“The recovery of sight to the blind.”
What is blindness? Not being able to see. In RTF we address lies that people believe that I think are blinding them to God’s truth. If you believe that you are worthless and don’t deserve to be loved, then you are being blinded to your value as a human being. Jesus didn’t die for worthless people. Jesus died for us because He thought we were valuable. Then once we become children of God and enter into His family, I think we begin experiencing the value that Jesus has for us. We become dearly loved Children of God with God Himself as our Abba, Daddy, Father. It doesn’t get any better than that.
“To proclaim release to captives And freedom to prisoners.” Jesus came to earth to not only go to the cross and die so we can be forgiven of our sins and live with Him for eternity in heaven, as amazingly wonderful as that is. Jesus came to set us free from anything that holds us captive today. As we team with God, we will help people break the strongholds of the demonic in their lives. We also break word cursed that have been spoken over them, and we break the negative effects of ungodly soul ties.
That is how we team with God to bring healing and freedom and restoration into the lives of God’s children. Now look at what happens after His children are healed and set free.
To comfort all who mourn,
3 To grant those who mourn in Zion,
Giving them a garland instead of ashes,
The oil of gladness instead of mourning,
The cloak of praise instead of a disheartened spirit.
So they will be called oaks of righteousness,
The planting of the Lord, that He may be glorified.
I want some of that! He gives them garland instead of askes. Garland is a decretive head ornament; in some places it is translated as a tierra. Ashes were put on their heads when they were morning. No more. Now we get a tierra. It also says a cloak of praise instead of a disheartened spirit. We will be called oaks of righteousness. An oak symbolized strength.
But wait it gets better. What will we, the children of God who are restored and healed do?
“Then they (talking about God’s children) will rebuild the ancient ruins,
They will raise up the former devastations;
And they will repair the ruined cities,
The desolations of many generations.”
God will allow us to bring restoration to things that have been in ruins for generations. You can bring restoration to your family line by breaking off the things you inherited from your ancestors. If you do the hard work of digging into your family line and walking through RTF ministry, you will be fulfilling this verse. You will be repairing the ruined cities in your family. You will be used to repair the desolation of many generations. That is exciting.
“But you will be called the priests of the Lord;
You will be spoken of as ministers of our God.
You will eat the wealth of nations,
And you will boast in their riches.”
In the process we get a new job and a new job title. We become priests of the Lord, ministers of our God. People who have had their life restored by Jesus have a hard time not telling others of what Jesus has done in their lives. I mentioned earlier how God is using RTF in Singapore and the Philippines and in Japan. How did we hear about this? The ministers who went into these countries to “repair the ruined cities” were so excited they had to tell us what God is doing there. People’s lives are being changed, which results in a change in their family, which changes their church, which changes their community, which changes their state, which changes their nation, which changes the world. OK. Maybe I am getting a bit carried away, but you get the idea. If you would like to see some of the testimonies of lives being changed, go to our website at www.restoringthefoundations.org and click on the GET MINISTRY tab at the top and you will find video testimonies in the middle of that page.
“Instead of your shame you will have a double portion,
And instead of humiliation they will shout for joy over their portion.
Therefore they will possess a double portion in their land,
Everlasting joy will be theirs.”
This might be my favorite part of this verse. Satan has saturated this world with shame. Shame is that thing that tells you that there is something wrong with you. Shame wants to convince you that your identity is determined by your failures and mistakes. But notice what this verse says. When we allow Jesus to bring His healing and restoration into our lives we will have a double portion instead of shame. So instead of shame we will get double blessings, double honor, double experience of God as our father, double freedom, double…ok you get the idea. Double. You will receive a double portion of all that God is offering to His children. The verse goes on to say, “instead of humiliation they will shout for joy over their portion”. Instead of receiving the humiliation from this world due to our mistakes and failures we will shout for joy over the freedom and healing we receive from Jesus. I was raised that you didn’t make noise in church. We didn’t even say amen out loud, so you certainly didn’t shout. The more freedom and healing I get the louder my praise gets. I can now shout for joy because of what God has done in my life in the past and is still doing today. Sometimes shouting is the only way to express how I’m feeling. It is sort of like when something good happens to your favorite team in a football game and you find yourself shouting at the TV. OK, maybe that is not a great illustration, but you get the idea.
Notice how this verse repeats the double portion thing. I believe that when God says something once it is important. But when He repeats Himself like in this verse, then we need to pay attention. This is really important. God wants us to know that we can possess a double portion. Not just when we get to heaven, but right here right now.
It goes on to say that everlasting joy is ours. I don’t know about you, but I want all of that that I can get. Joy is the result of having our hearts healed and our lives restored.
If you listen to this Hope Healing and Freedom podcast on a regular basis you have heard us, say, “Don’t settle for anything less than the freedom that Jesus came to give.” This passage of scripture is part of why we continually say that. Freedom and healing are wonderful but it is not meant just to make your life better. It is so that you can become the ministers of our God, the restorers of ruined cities.
Prayer
Father God thank you for sending Jesus to die on the cross to pay the price for our sins and make a way for us to have a restored relationship with You. I also thank you that He came to give us even more, and that is an abundant life to that we can fulfill the purposes that you have for each one of us. Father if there are any listening to the podcast that are being help in bondage by anything, would you motivate them to get ministry so they can be free. In Jesus Name!
If you discovered anyplace where you are not walking in freedom, please go to our website at www.restoringthefoundations.org and click on the GET MINISTRY tab and find a ministry team in your area. It will be worth it. Remember that everlasting joy will be yours.
