He Restores the Lost Heritage

Here is what ADONAI – Tzva’ot says: “Think about your life! Go up into the hills, get wood, and rebuild the house. I will be pleased with that, and then I will be glorified says ADONAI. Haggai 1:7

Haggai was a prophet of the Lord who lived during the time of Ezra when the Children of Israel were brought out of Babylonian captivity. The foundation of the temple had been completed, but instead of being fired up to do the work of God by rebuilding the temple, they became spiritually apathetic. Their homes were built and complete while the house of God lay in ruin. Haggai was sent by God to shake the Israelites awake to complete the temple and revive and renew their spirits in Him.

The heritage of Abraham was a land promised to them, flowing with milk and honey. A land that they would be able to dwell with God in. However, it was not going to be a cake walk to get it. They had to work for it first. The problem was, as it is with us often time, was partial obedience or as God sees it, disobedience. They would continually mess up the blessings of God and their heritage through disobedience. They were told by God that He was their God and to have no other gods before Him, yet how many times did they fall into worshiping other Gods? They would be given precise directions but would only partially follow them. Over the course of time, they would fall away from God until a Godly judge, prophet or king would bring them back to repentance, and they would repeat this pattern until God finally had enough and sent them into exile.

Even though God rebuked His children, He always had a plan of promise waiting for them. He always had a plan of restoration, and it has even followed Israel into modern times. In 1948, the modern era of the restoration of the lost heritage happened when Israel once again became a nation, after years of exile. He has begun restoring His people in the physical realm. Therefore, it is so important to pay attention to what is happening with and in Israel. God told Abraham in Genesis 12:3 I will bless those who bless you, but I will curse anyone who curses you; and by you all the families of the earth will be blessed. Christians should be praying for Israel. We should be lifting God’s original chosen people up, speaking blessing over them, standing with and for them. God blesses those who bless Israel.

Let us for a moment take a trip back in the Bible to the book of Luke. Throughout His ministry here on earth, Jesus was about restoration. He restored health to the sick, He restored wholeness to people when He would cast out demons, He restored hope in the hearts of everyone who listened to His teachings, except for a select few groups. There came a day that Jesus was again with sinners and tax collectors and the Scribes and Pharisees started their grumblings against Him, so He began to tell three different parables. In the first, He spoke of a sheep that wandered away from its herd, and the shepherd left the other 99 to go search for it. When he found it, he lifted the sheep onto his shoulders and carried it home, calling all his friends to come celebrate with him, because his lost sheep had been found. In the second, Jesus spoke of a woman who lost a valuable coin, so she lit a lamp and swept out her house until she found the coin and then called her neighbors to come celebrate because she found what had been lost. In the third parable, He spoke of a man with two sons. The younger asked his father for his share of the inheritance and took off to live a life of excess in a far-off land. When famine hit and he was out of money, he was reduced to living as a servant, feeding pigs, nearly starving to death. He decided to rise and go home to his father, asking to live as a servant in his home as he knew he would not starve and would be able to survive. When the father saw the son from afar, he ran to meet him, fell on his neck, kissing him and crying. He told his servants to bring shoes, his good robe, and a ring to place on the son, and then ordered them to kill the fatted calf so that they could celebrate the son’s return. When the older son came in from the field and saw the celebration, he became enraged at his father concerning the situation. His father’s reply was, “Son, it is good that we celebrate, for your brother who was dead is alive again.” (Luke 15:3-32) He ended the first two parables in similar ways saying, “I tell you that in the same way, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who turns to God from his sins than over ninety-nine righteous people who have no need to repent.”

He restores the lost. That is you, that is me, that is every single human on this planet from then until now. We are the heritage of Jesus. When He hung on the cross, He knew the name of every person across the span of time that would ever live, and on that day, He restored His heritage, His inheritance, His temple, His people. The bible says that WE are now God’s temple in 1 Corinthians 3:16-17. And like the temple in the time of Haggai and Ezra, when we become saved we have a new foundation laid. The problem is, we often become saved, and cry out in excitement over this new temple, but as time begins to pass, we neglect to continue to build it. Just as God told the Israelites, through the prophet to rebuild the house, so must we. We must not think that when we get saved everything is just magically better. Just like the enemy came against Israel when they started to rebuild the physical temple, so shall the enemy come against us. If we fail to build the walls with the Word, apply the roof with a strong prayer life, and plant ourselves deep in Him, as soon as the enemy attacks, we have nothing to protect ourselves with. It is time for the body of Christ to rebuild, individually as well as collectively. It is only when we have restored the broken walls of our own lives that we can help others find their foundation and help rebuild their walls.

When Jesus looked at me, He did not say, “Oh, there is Melisa, one of the sinners, one of the ones who doesn’t do it right.” He looked at me and said “I know you; I chose you, rise up daughter! Rise and be healed, rise, and build the temple. I have plans for you, that you know nothing about. For you to fulfill them, your temple must have walls mortared with My Word. Your temple must be encased in prayer. Your temple must be wholly dedicated to Me. Battles will come, and the enemy will try to tear down the walls, to burn and destroy this temple, but fear not. I am with you. I will hide you in the shadow of my wings, because you are Mine, and I have restored you.” He says the same of you because He restores the lost heritage.