Restorer

“You know, when we hear the word Restorer, and we hear someone say ‘God Restore me’ we think of someone who has lost something.” - TY Bello

I must have been about a week or two into my walk as a born again Christian in the Kingdom when God gave me a scriptural revelation. The kind of vision you see, you’re not sure why you’ve seen it and yet it’s so very layered that as you peel back it keeps blowing your mind. I’ve heard it said the Word of God is like gold, seven times refined; the more I read scripture, the more this is proven to be true.

I was asleep in my bedroom one summer afternoon, being a believer in the power behind a good power nap. In my dream, I saw one of my favourite preachers Reverend Funke Felix Adejumo preaching. There was a lot going on on the podium but eventually the vision panned out and I was transported to a landscape. Behind that was what resembled a massive PowerPoint or Scroll. Words were flashing past, and in bold words leaping at me was the scripture Zephaniah 2:7. I woke up from the dream dazed and wondering what that was all about. There is no such book as Zephaniah in the Bible surely, I thought? As I picked up my pink New Living Translation Bible to investigate - lo and behold there it was staring at me.

Zephaniah 2:7 [ESV]

The seacoast shall become the possession of the remnant of the House of Judah, on which they shall graze, and in the houses of Ashkelon they shall lie down at evening. For the Lord their God will be mindful of them and restore their fortunes.

As months have gone by, this single scripture has turned out to be so incredibly layered. God used this to galvanise me into action to birth a charitable foundation. He also used this to activate one of the gifts of the spirit which I never knew or could ever have imagined I had! The more I meditate on this scripture, the more I asked myself - what did I lose that God has promised to restore? I recently came across TY Bello’s powerful exhortation on Restoration. Included below is a poignant extract from this beautiful piece.

TY Bello - Restorer

“You know when we hear the word Restorer, and we hear someone say “God restore me”, we look at … we think of someone who has lost something. But what we don’t realise is that most of the things we need restoration for, we are not even aware that we lost. So it’s like things that have never happened. That you didn’t even know were a possibility in your life. That by not being in the right space that thing passed over your life and never happened. You are not missing it. You are not aware that it was ever yours. There are things that God has given you that you don’t have any recognition of. You don’t lay claim to, because you are not even aware that you were given those things.

God is the God that restores the things that you don’t even know you lost. Opportunities that never even came your way. Graces and gifts that you didn’t even know existed. Restoration is not “Oh I have lost this, God restore.” Yes. But restoration is on different levels. For many of us it is time. It is that we carry certain things in our hearts and we feel like we have lived our lives, but we are not at that place where we feel like we have the energy to begin again. Restoration means that God pours new life and gives us the energy that we need, or the energy that we no longer have to be at a beginning. Because you see when you’re 40-ish, you’re more comfortable gliding and reigning. It’s kind of intimidating to start things you’re not comfortable with. Restoration means that the energy that should have been yours to birth such a thing at this time… that you have lost by not understanding your own identity, that God will give it to you. Because it is time for us, even throughout our lives where we have to be children again. Where we are not at a place where we are on top of things. Where we can be vulnerable, knowing that God restores strength unto us. Restores wisdom, ability.

God is also the God that restores relationships unto us. Because there are many relationships that we had but we have lost because we did not understand the importance or the relevance or the function of those relationships. Whereas those relationships are actually intricate to your destiny. God is the one that can restore relationships that you don’t even know that you need. That you are not aware that you need. There are people in our lives that we have said, “You know what? Your wahala is plenty, you just sit down in one corner, just be there.” But sometimes those are people that God has sent into your life for now. But because you have “seen them finish” or you think you know them, or you know their purpose, their limitations, their strengths and their weaknesses, you put them in a box. For God to restore that relationship doesn’t mean that God will restore the relationship you had with the person. It means that God will restore to you the original intent of that relationship. That means the reason why He gave you that friendship in the first place. That means you missed the way with that friendship. You did not understand what the friendship was about. And therefore it was easy for both of you to just walk away and be like “you know what, dey your dey make I dey my dey.” Restoration is not “give me back my friend that I lost”, no. Give me the friend that I was meant to have. The friend that I was meant to have but their personal weaknesses will not let them be great. My personal weaknesses will not let us be great.”

What beautiful words. God is indeed the God that restores. You can watch the full exhortation here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H6eg5OB3cbM