Can a Nation be Restored?
The dictionary definition of restoration is “to revive and return to life” or “to bring back to a former or original condition.” This definition falls short of all that restoration in God means. God intends to do more than bring us back to a former or original condition. Restoration begins multiplication! When you study the process of restoration, you discover that once the process begins, you have the right to double, quadruple, and even enter into a sevenfold completion of all of God’s purposes.
Restoring, Reconciling, and Aligning a Nation
There is usually a process in everything. Process is the course of something developing and eventually coming into its full operation. Process includes preparation, discipline, order, change, development, and operational steps that bring you to a destination. Therefore, we go through a process to reach our destiny. That process usually includes restoration, reconciliation, and some sort of release.When we align the Body of Christ in our nation, we find a peculiar people ready to do God’s will from Heaven, in the land that we occupy here in the earth. We represent God in this nation. We, the Body of Christ, should be the driving force to even maintain our Constitution and the Declaration of Independence. Any time our nation deviates from God’s plan first and then His sovereign order in this nation, the Body of Christ should rise up and say, “Let us return and be restored to the Lord.”
So that our nation might be transformed, God’s order must first be strategically established. When strategic intercessors are aligned with apostolic leaders, breakthrough begins. Intercessors carry the burden of God, prophetic people make key declarations, and apostles set the decrees in motion. In other words, intercessors keep the heavens open; prophets begin to express God’s heart, making key declarations into the atmosphere; and apostolic leaders pull upon that revelation or blueprint of Heaven and bring it into an established form in the earth realm.God is realigning or shifting our nation. A shift is a change of place, position, or direction. A shift also includes an exchange, or replacement, of one thing for another. A shift is a change of gear so that we can accelerate. A shift can also be an underhanded or deceitful scheme. Therefore, in our shift, we must recognize that the enemy is plotting to stop it. God is ready for us to shift through our choice to enter into a new dimension of faith. Let us not lean on our understanding but shift into this new dimension of faith!
Repent and Allow the Lord to Shift Your Thoughts!
The simple meaning of repentance is to change your mind. So many times we develop a belief system that is not aligned with the absolute Word of the Lord; or we start off believing right but then add other worldly knowledge to our knowledge of who God is and develop other thought patterns. This is how strongholds and iniquitous patterns develop. Second Corinthians 10:3-6 says:
For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ, and being ready to punish all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled.
These thought processes have to be dismantled if we are ever going to express the mind and heart of God.Repentance has three phases: intellectual, emotional, and volitional. First, there is an intellectual aspect of repentance. When we gain knowledge that something in our own life or thoughts is not right, we have to change the way we think to incorporate that knowledge.
Next, there is an emotional aspect to repentance. Our emotions actually store many of our memories. When we are wounded, we remember. When we experience trauma, we remember. When we violate a principle of God and suffer the consequences, our emotions are affected. In other words, we can know we need to forgive, but our emotions never give up the wound.The third aspect of repentance is volitional. Our will must change. There has to be an action based upon your new thought processes. This is why so many prophets demonstrate through prophetic actions the required change of mind that God is requesting His people to make. This also means that you cannot voice a change of mind and then continue to practice the same old sin pattern.When we repent, we change our mind and take a turn onto our new path of victory. The Lord accomplished this in many ways throughout the Word of God. He would bless His people abundantly, as He did with Peter in Luke chapter 5. He would bring judgment. He would dry up heavens or change atmospheres. And at all times, the Lord is longsuffering, in order to provoke us to think the way He thinks.This causes us to develop a Kingdom mentality. The Kingdom of God is within us. We build the Church, but we receive keys to the Kingdom. We need to study the Kingdom. Matthew 11:12b declares, “Now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force.” The Kingdom advances in victory. This occurs through violent spiritual conflict and warfare. When the Church acts as God’s warring agent, the Kingdom increases. Let us lift up our shield and sharpen our sword because they are both important in God’s Kingdom conflicts ahead.
Reconciliation Follows Repentance
Once we know that God wants changes in the earth and we agree with Him, we must move forward with Him to reconcile or realign His purposes. Reconcile means to “restore friendship and fellowship.” I think this should begin first with the Lord instead of each other. Reconciliation brings the change of mind into a thorough visible manifestation. When we reconcile, we open the door for a full release. The Lord reconciled the world and changed its relationship to God by going to the cross. We have been reconciled to God. This is how loss becomes salvageable.The person in the Bible who has most affected my prayer life, other than Jesus, is Daniel. I just love how he operated in victory in Babylon. He was truly “in the world, but not of it.” He was disciplined, sensitive, consistent, uncompromising, bold, supernatural, attentive to the past, but always pressing toward God’s expected end for the people of Israel. We find a great pattern when we look at how he repented and reconciled the situation of God’s covenant people while he lived in Babylon. Again, reconciliation realigns the door of Heaven with earth.The Lord is forming new doors or portals in the heavenlies as we pray, war, decree, and advance in His order. To form means to “develop or mold the shape or outline of something,” or to “give meaning, character, or nature to something.” Another way of thinking about a season of formation is to see something (including the conditioning of our mind and body) as it will be in days ahead. A forming season includes conceiving, training, and disciplining.Many enemies are behind this door that is forming, but the Lord says: “Do not focus on your enemies during this season, but watch the door form and be ready to enter into this new opportunity. I will give you grace over your enemies.” This is the time for a major conversion of souls. Ephesians 6:12 reminds us, “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.”
Daniel understood how prophecy was important in our prayer lives. He knew he had to use the prophecies spoken, to war for the future! Take, for example, the situation when Jeremiah prophesied that the people of Israel would go into captivity, but would be released in 70 years. Daniel uncovered the prophetic writings of Jeremiah while Israel was still held captive in Babylon.He learned that Jerusalem was to lie desolate for 70 years, and that the 70-year period had now come to an end. Because of Jeremiah’s prophetic declaration, Daniel knew that now was the time to act. Jeremiah’s understanding of the future had turned into a “now” word for Daniel.Daniel did four specific things to bring an end to Israel’s captivity:
He prayed and fasted. Jeremiah was specific in saying that the Lord would turn a deaf ear to His people for 70 years. Now, however, Daniel knew that the kairos time had come to beseech the Lord for an end to captivity.
He repented for himself and his people. Once he knew the mind of God, Daniel confessed and repented not only for his own sin, but for the sins, iniquities, and failures of the Israelites that resulted in their captivity in the first place.
He received an angelic visitation. God honored Daniel’s efforts and sent His archangel, Michael. After three weeks of prayer, fasting, and repentance, an angel appeared to Daniel to tell him what was written in the “Book of the Future.” In other words, he told Daniel what would happen to his people.
He received revelation of the future. Because of Jeremiah’s prophecy, Daniel understood the times in which he was living. Because he understood the times, he saw his window of opportunity and began to seek the Lord with great fervency. When he did, he gained an understanding of the future God had for his people, and through obedience to God’s commands, he could move them forward, out of their captivity.
When the word of God is released through prophecy, it is never forgotten. It is stored in Heaven until God is ready to release it back into the earth. In the Body of Christ, we have received many prophetic words, both through Scripture and through modern day prophets, that are about to come to pass on earth. We need to understand the times, seize our kairos opportunities, and move into the future with victory! Even though times ahead will change rapidly and may be difficult, we have great confidence that God will give us the revelation we need to move forward.
When we are overwhelmed by our present circumstances and apparent defeats, we must hear the Lord speak to us, just as He did to Jeremiah, “Is there anything too hard for Me?”
In Daniel chapter 7, we also find revelation of the Ancient of Days. I believe this is very important and needed revelation for us to be victorious in prayer in days ahead. In Daniel 7:9-14, we find that Daniel had a revelation of God’s everlasting reigning power. He states:
I watched till thrones were put [set] in place, and the Ancient of Days was seated….One like the Son of Man…came to the Ancient of Days….Then to Him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and His kingdom…which shall not be destroyed.
This name of God, “Ancient of Days,” is a phrase that describes the Everlasting God, One advanced in days or knowledge, the Father of Years, and One who forwards time or rules over it. The name implies dignity, endurance, judgment, and wisdom. “Behold, God is great, and we do not know Him; nor can the number of His years be discovered” (Job 36:26).The Ancient of Days has a covenant with the earth. In this covenant, the earth will be full of His purposes, and He will be longsuffering until all have heard. The heart of God is to form covenant with all peoples on the face of earth and establish a house of prayer for each one (see Isa. 56:5-8), including those in your city.That is why we must learn how to prophesy to that which has been scattered through these thrones of iniquity. Just as Ezekiel did in Ezekiel chapter 37, we must speak to the dry bones and command them to be brought back to life. This kind of prophetic declaration not only reestablishes God’s covenant purpose for a territory, but also brings those within the territory out of their hope deferred, causing them to rebuild that which the enemy has destroyed.The Ancient of Days releases ancient wisdom for present-day victory. A Scripture that has revolutionized my prayer life is First Corinthians 2:6-10:
We speak wisdom among those who are mature, yet not the wisdom of the age, nor the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the ages for our glory, which none of the rulers of this age knew; for had they known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. But as it is written: “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard…the things which God has prepared for those who love Him.” But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit….
God gives us several keys as we pray:
God has wisdom greater than any worldly wisdom we encounter.
Powers and principalities do not have access to this wisdom.
The authority of demonic forces is limited.
There is wisdom that has been hidden since the beginning of time, for His glory.
Through the redemptive cross of Jesus Christ, we have access to this wisdom.
God is prepared to release this wisdom to us as we get to know Him intimately, through prayer.
This wisdom will overthrow high places and release captives.
Wisdom dismantles demonic structures and overthrows thrones of iniquity.
When the Lord showed this to me, I knew that any demonic force holding a territory captive could not withstand the wisdom that God would release to His people. I knew that if the Spirit of the Lord burdened me to pray for a city or a state or a nation, I had authority to gain the keys for the release of its inhabitants. This is a day when the Lord is extending a fresh call of prayer to His people.He is revealing the true condition of our country and saying: “Overcome every obstacle that is keeping these people from coming to know Me. Open the door for My house to be built within them so they may experience My love throughout eternity. Through prayer, gain wisdom that will overthrow the thrones of iniquity wherever they have been established. Then establish My throne that many may worship Me and gain life everlasting!” This is how entire cities will experience conversion.This is how we will overthrow thrones of iniquity and see God’s covenant plan for whole territories flourish in days ahead. In Daniel chapter 10, we find Daniel seeking God with intensity for 21 days. It was then that the Ancient of Days sent the aid of Michael, the archangel. Revelation was then released into the earth realm—revelation that we are walking in today.
Can We as a Nation Continue to Shift and Realign to God’s Perfect Plan?
The answer is YES—if we are willing to war to receive God’s covenant blessing. Abraham is a great example (see Gen. 14–15).The answer is YES—if we find our place in the gap. Nehemiah is a great example (see Neh. 1–2). He received God’s burden and found favor from the king to accomplish the task.The answer is YES—if the Church is willing to shift from its discipling-teaching mentality to an apostolic-sending mentality (see John 20–21). Jesus discipled the Twelve until it was time to send them. Then He released them and sent them.The answer is YES—if we allow the Spirit of God to align us in God’s order. We find an order of God in First Corinthians 12: first apostles, second prophets. Any time God says “first,” He means that’s the key to the prototype of the future. We must see apostles and prophets align in our region. Then teachers and pastors will rise up with new anointing, and we will see miracles and healings that unlock evangelism.The answer is YES—if we will allow the Lord to shake disinterest, confusion, legalism, condemnation, discouragement, and disillusionment.
Once God began to shake the people in the days of Haggai, He assured them that their latter would be greater than their former. He shook them into a desire to complete His purposes (see Hag. 1–3).The answer is YES—if we are willing to be like the woman at the well and drop our pot and run quickly (see John 4). This woman tore down her prejudices, overcame her past, experienced a new reality of the Lord, left her mundane daily exercise of getting water, and ran and evangelized her whole city.The answer is YES—if we are willing to bind the strongman who has robbed us of our spoils. In Matthew 12:25-29, we find that we should first, bind the strongman…then go in and take his spoils.We are entering into a season of plundering the enemy’s camp. The promises of God are “yes” and “amen.” Shout “yes” and see our nation realign and shift into God’s purposes!
