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The Daily Word of Righteousness
The Work of Restoration, #7
Then rose up the chief of the fathers of Judah and Benjamin, and the priests, and the Levites, with all them whose spirit God had raised, to go up to build the house of the Lord which is in Jerusalem. (Ezra 1:5)
Called to the Work of Restoration
There must be a personal call of God on each person who is to help accomplish the restoration. The work is of God. The ambitions of people have no part to play in the building of the Body of Christ or in the creating of righteous strength in Christ's victorious saints.
Notice that the elders and the leaders were called as well as the common people. The Divine restoration is not some new imaginative program or revelation thought up by youthful enthusiasts in Christ. The true restoration is the move of the anointing of the Spirit of God. God's elders, those who know the joyful sound, will hear the call of the Spirit. So will some of the less experienced believers.
Whoever will choose to do so may join the happy worshipers who are going up to the Lord's House with thanksgiving and adoration in their hearts. The Holy Spirit is inviting us all to the good things of the Lord as the work of restoration presses forward toward the glorious appearing of the Lord Jesus from Heaven.
Another characteristic of the true move of God is that people offer willingly. Everyone wants to help. It is not necessary for us to rage and fume over the slowness of people to respond. When God is on the move the "animals will come to Noah's Ark by themselves." There is no need to force any individual against his will. God places joy in our hearts so we want to serve the Lord.
And all they that were about them strengthened their hands with vessels of silver, with gold, with goods, and with beasts, and with precious things, beside all that was willingly offered. (Ezra 1:6)
Chapter Two of Ezra mentions by name the Israelite families that left Babylon to return to Jerusalem. The Lord wants us to understand people and their families are important to Him. The Divine restoration is not some abstract working of the Spirit of God. It is a personal move of the Lord as He speaks to His beloved people and their families one at a time. God cares about each of us and about those whose welfare is of concern to us.
The first act of the returning Jews was to offer sacrifices to the Lord on the Altar of Burnt Offering.
And they set the altar upon his bases; for fear was upon them because of the people of those countries: and they offered burnt offerings thereon unto the Lord, even burnt offerings morning and evening. (Ezra 3:3)
The Altar of Burnt Offering, the first furnishing of the Tabernacle of the Congregation, portrays Christ on the cross of Calvary. Every true move of God without exception returns first to the blood of the cross in order to obtain authority and perspective. The central message of the Kingdom of God is Christ crucified. When the cross is not seen and felt in the ministry, the ministry has gotten off the track.
To be continued.