Jesus died for us so that He could have an open, no interference relationship with us. He died to have an uninhibited, no in between, no nonsense, open relationship between us and Him. If He’s got an open relationship with you, and you’re letting Him talk to you and you’re letting Him have that relationship with you, then surely you’re going to become more like Him.
You are going to begin to think like Jesus, because He is talking to you all the time, then you’re going to be thinking like Him. And you’re going to be speaking like He speaks, and then your relationship with Him will begin to speak into every other relationship, the way that it needs to be ordered. It will come into order.
Psalm 23 is an example to us of such a healthy relationship. It comes with a recognition that the Lord is your Shepherd. The Lord is the One who guides you, leads you and shields you. He feeds you, He guides you and He shields you. If the Lord is your Shepherd, then you will not want, you will lack nothing. Not only does it speak of a healthy relationship with Him, but it admits quite deeply to the fact that trouble is a part of life. Even if the Lord is your Shepherd, and there are times when He makes you lie down in still waters and makes you eat from green pastures, there are still times of trouble that will come, but the Good Shepherd will lead you through it.
God has paths of righteousness that He wants us to walk on. They are paths that give us safety. They are directed by God and they’re pleasing to Him. Even when you’re on the path of righteousness for His name’s sake, you are still in a place where you will need His rod and His staff to comfort you. His Word, and His Holy Spirit, the body of Christ, the gifts that God has placed in the church are designed to comfort you, and strengthen you, and to guide you in that moment.
Say: Thank You Lord for Your Word, Your Holy Spirit and the body of Christ to comfort, lead and guide me! I will not be afraid as I walk on the paths of righteousness that You have set before me.
¹⁴“I am the good shepherd; and I know My sheep, and am known by My own. ¹⁵As the Father knows Me, even so I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep. ¹⁶And other sheep I have which are not of this fold; them also I must bring, and they will hear My voice; and there will be one flock and one shepherd.”(John 10:14-16 NKJV)
We can trust the voice of the Lord. We can trust Him. Don’t quit on the Word, and if you don’t quit on this word that God is restoring relationships, you will see that He is still working. If you give your obedience to God, there is no limit to what a godly relationship can do. A relationship that God brings together is limitless. Limitless in His possibilities, if you will walk in the paths of righteousness with Him.
The Lord wants to restore your soul, because your spirit man who is the real you knows where you belong. The problem is not with your spirit, the problem is with your soul, it’s your mind, it’s your emotions. It needs to be restored. God is bringing it back to its original state. We all have things in our past that have entered in our minds, that have entered into our hearts; we’ve done stupid things, we’ve made mistakes, we’ve said things, gone places. We all need our souls to be restored.
Say: I lay it down. Restore me now, Father. Restore me. Restore everything in me.
The restoration that God does is so good, it is so amazing! When Jesus came and died for us on the cross, there is nothing that you do that He stands in accusation of you. Not a single thing that you do, does He accuse you of your sin. Jesus is sitting at the right hand of the Father right now in heaven, interceding for us. He is interceding for us because He knows that there are many accusations that come to your soul. Many things that come to your soul in your life that want to keep you in fear, keep you off your righteous path that He preordained you should walk on, and He is interceding for us that we should walk there because that’s where you have abundance. That’s where you have blessings. God wants to put you back into possession, that you are in charge of and in control of your future, no one else. That’s the way He designed you to live. He wants to bring you back into a renewed state. He wants to put you back onto the existent path that you should be walking on. And He is doing it, He is restoring you right now.
²⁵For you were like sheep gone astray, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls. 1 Peter 2:25 (NKJV).
It will be an ongoing process where you completely constantly are saying, I’m walking on the paths of righteousness. Even though I’m walking through the valley of death sometimes and it feels like that pain and that oppression of my past is coming upon me. I count on His rod and His staff that comforts me. I count on Him to be my good Shepherd. I count on Him to restore me, and to feed me, and to nourish me so that I don’t have to live in the pain of my past. And I don’t have to live in the pain of mistakes and on the issues of all the stuff that I’ve had to deal with.
Say: God restored my soul. God restored my soul and God has touched all of my stuff from my past and they are no more. I now walk in a state of restored being. Hallelujah! The past has a no entry sign to my soul! My soul is committed to Jesus and to His ways. His paths of righteousness. I give my soul to You, my good Shepherd, You are the Overseer of my soul. And because You oversee my soul, I say right now that I walk in all of the plans and purposes and the paths of righteousness that You have made me to walk in.
© 2023 – Heritage of Faith Ministries International
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