And I will restore to you the years that the locust has eaten, the cankerworm, and the caterpillar, and the palmerworm, my great army which I sent among you. Joel 2:25
Today your LORD (יהוה) God says:
Today I would like to talk with you about making up for the years that the cankerworm ate, the years that the locust devoured.
That is harvest talk. Your lost harvests.
Many people through sin, ignorance, false ideas, pride, oppression or sloth waste years of their lives which could have been fruitful. Years which would have given them great harvests and more seed to sow. These years are eaten by the locust.
Time is the most precious possession you have. When it is gone it is gone forever and you can never get it back. But I have good news for you. It is never too late if you are still alive to become fruitful, and I can restore those harvests to you that you lost. I can make up in a short time for the years that the cankerworm ate if you are willing to step out in faith with Me. I can make your life beautiful and productive. I can restore those wasted years.
You can redeem the time.
You may be thinking that is impossible. But let Me show you I have done it numerous times.
Remember Moses? I gave him a wonderful and miraculous start and he could have been tremendously fruitful at an early age. I showed such favor to him, instead of being killed as the law required of all Hebrew boys born at that time in Egypt, I arranged it so Pharaoh’s daughter adopted him and raised him to be the future ruler of Egypt. Think what good he could have done for My people in such a position. Instead he murdered an Egyptian in what he thought was his zeal for Me and the Hebrew people. He did not ask Me about it, but did it on impulse in anger. Because of that Pharaoh, instead of making him the next ruler, sought to put him to death. Moses then fled and spent the next forty years hidden away on the back side of the desert watching his father-in-law’s sheep. He had no authority and he had no use for his great education and governing abilities. He was wasting his life and his talents. But during that time he learned humility and he learned to trust Me for provision.
But one day He heard My Voice and encountered Me. I gave him an instruction and he followed My call. That changed everything. He became the most powerful man of his day. He devastated the Egyptian empire and moved an entire nation across a barren desert to the land of Canaan. He parted the Red Sea, brought water out of rocks, saw manna appear to feed the people all the years of their sojourn in the desert, received the law, and talked with Me as My intimate friend. And he did this for forty years. The life he had lost for forty years on the back side of the desert working for his father-in-law, I gave to him as the leader of over two million people for the course of forty years. I restored and made up for all the harvests he had lost.
My gifts and My call are irrevocable. It is never too late to get back on track. Moses was eighty years old when I called him back to My plan for his life. He could have refused and lived a low-level mediocre life, but he did not.
I refused to take “no” for an answer for I knew his heart. He was the meekest man on earth. I resist the proud but show grace to the humble.
You can make up for the years the cankerworm ate and more. I will give you your lost harvests when you turn to Me with all your heart and get serious about following Me and seeking My Kingdom. Especially if you lost them out of misplaced zeal for Me.
Moses murdered the Egyptian out of zeal for Me, it was misplaced and he did not ask Me about it but it was done for Me. So once I got his attention and he learned humility and meekness, I called him again. I gave him the same number of years he had wasted.
You see this in the life of My servant Paul. He spent many of his years as a Pharisee so zealous for My honor that he was relentlessly pursuing Christians and having them put to death! I saw his heart for Me but how in his ignorance He was wasting his life and gifts fighting against Me, persecuting Me. I spoke to him. He heard My voice and it changed everything. He repented and changed his way of thinking. He obeyed. I then restored to him the years he had lost and more. For the rest of his life he was influential and fruitful for My Kingdom. He had one of the most powerful and fruitful lives ever lived.
And remember Samson? I gave him great gifts and planned for him to be the leader of Israel who would free Israel from the oppression of the Philistines. Through lust, sin and rebellion he wasted those gifts and ended up the prisoner and laughingstock of the Philistines, the people I had gifted him to conquer. The moment he repented and turned to Me in humility I restored his gift and he, in one instant, toppled and defeated the entire government of the Philistines. He destroyed all the key leaders of the Philistine nation in one final act. His mistake though was he prayed for his own death at the same time. Judges 16:30. I honor your wishes. He could have asked for more life, more years so he could have led Israel as a judge as he was meant to do, but instead he asked to die in defeating the Philistines.
Samson learned humility at the end of his life—that he was not the source of his strength. Moses learned it on the back side of the desert with his father-in-law. Pride will stop the anointing. It finally raised its head again in Moses’ life and disqualified him from entering the Promised Land.
You may be feeling you wasted many precious years of your life and looking back with regret. That is not productive and it does no good. I want to show you how to turn your life around and let Me restore what you lost.
Let us look at My servant Paul and see how it happened in his life. First he heard My Voice. The same was true with Moses. They had personal encounters with Me. They experienced that I am a living God and that I am present to you. And they not only heard My voice, they got instruction from Me on what to do. And they followed that instruction though it entirely changed their lives and required them to think a new way. You see Noah and Abraham had the same experience. They heard My voice—had personal encounters with Me—and received an instruction that they stepped out in faith and followed that totally changed their lives forever.
After Paul encountered Me, he repented of his former way of life and way of thinking about Me. This is the next step to being fruitful and recovering your harvests.
So it all begins when you hear My voice and experience Me personally. This will get you moving. This will light your fire. This will cause you to repent. This will produce gratitude and humility.
Next Paul was baptized in water and the Holy Spirit. He was filled with the Holy Spirit.
And Paul accepted My total forgiveness and that I loved him. He was confident of My love for him. He knew Me in whom he had believed. He was overflowing with joy and trusted Me completely. He called himself the least of the apostles, but he received more revelation than any of them. He said that forgetting what lies behind, he was intent on pressing forward to reach the goal of his high calling in Christ.
He later wrote that he had nothing on his conscious, his conscious was totally cleansed of all guilt, shame and regret by the blood of My Son. Paul understood grace. Where sin abounded, grace superabounded. He knew there was now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
And he preached that as first importance for you to know—that Christ died for your sins and was raised to give you new life. He kept his eyes on Jesus and knew that before Me that was his true identity. He wrote that he no longer lived, but Jesus lived in him. That he gave his life to the one who loved him so much as to die for him while he was My enemy.
The key to a life without limits, a key to recovering all your lost harvests, the key to happiness and hope, is quite simple. It is hearing My voice within you and then working with Me instead of for Me.
This is very important, so let Me repeat it. The key to a blessed life in which there is no stress is working with Me instead of for Me. If you do not work with Me, even if you think you are working for Me, you may, out of ignorance of the Truth, be working against Me, as Paul was before He encountered Me personally on the way. He was wearing himself out working for Me, but he actually was working against Me by taking people away from My Son.
When I say “working with Me” rather than “for Me.” I actually mean working from your spirit rather than your soul. Your spirit is where My Holy Spirit dwells if you have been born again. And My Spirit speaks with your spirit. This is how you receive direction so we can work together, partner so to speak, rather than you working for Me out of what you decide in your analytical mind without including My input.
You see this in Paul’s life and Moses’ life. At first, even though they were zealous for Me, they did what pleased them and what they thought pleased Me.
My Son Jesus understood this principle and look how mighty and fruitful His life was. It has changed the whole world!. He said He never did anything on his own but only did what I revealed to Him. John 8:28.
If you work with Me, together we are a winning combination. I will direct you and then you authorize Me to act on earth through your life. You act like My partner, My ambassador, and My purposes are accomplished. You can accomplish great deeds in a short time with Me working with you and through you. Look at Moses parting the Red Sea. He did it at My direction, followed it carefully and was not afraid of stepping out. Do not ever do things on your own again. D0 them with Me and at My direction.
So no matter where you are or how old or young you are it does not matter. Your life is just beginning, listen to Me, I am always doing something new and I want you involved and working with Me, not just on your own with no clue as to My Will.
To be fruitful and have your lost harvests restored, you must be filled with My Spirit and hear from Me and then do whatever assignment I give you. I will give you direction as you go. This will bring your harvest.
My sheep hear My voice. I leave you with one final question for today, examine your life and heart, whose voice are you listening to? An ungodly counselor can ruin your life. 2 Chronicles 10:8-19. Let My Spirit lead you.
And I tell you exactly how to do this in Paul’s letter to the Ephesians. I tell you there to watch carefully how you live, not as fools but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil. Ephesians 5:15.The world will lead you in fruitless, lustful and wasted ways to gain profit from you, but I will not. The fool says in his heart there is no God and follows the ways of the world—the lusts of his or her flesh and his or her own preferences and logic, but a wise person follows My counsel—follows My Spirit’s direction. For My Spirit guides you to all truth and reveals to you the things to come. So you see that you redeem, buy back, lost time by wisdom. You waste time when you lack wisdom. So how do you get wisdom? Well, you ask for it from Me but to be filled with it you need to do certain things. Let Me show you from Ephesians 5. Let Me start at line 20 and work backwards for that is how to arrive at the result. I spoke the end from the beginning here, so start at the beginning to arrive at the end. First, you need to give thanks for everything to Me, your Father, in the Name of Jesus, your Lord. Ephesians 5:20. Once you get in the habit of being thankful for the good things you have each day and the dangers I protect you from (even when you are unaware that I have protected you), you will start singing and making melody to Me in your heart. You will sing like a child happy at play who hums a tune softly as he enjoys the day, knowing his mother is preparing good things for him and watching over his safety. Thanksgiving gives you joy in the abundance of things and joy makes you sing. I told you the way out of the valley of trouble is to sing there as you did in your youth and I will open the door of hope. Hosea 2:17. I will provide you the way out. Next, working up on the list in Ephesians 5, you will find that once you have developed the practice of thanksgiving (constant thanks) and begun singing and making melody to Me in your heart, you will begin addressing those around you in psalms, hymns and spiritual songs, for a man speaks from his heart’s abundance. Ephesians 5:19. And then you come to the result: “being filled with the Holy Spirit.” Ephesians 5:18. Thanksgiving and songs of praise and worship bring down the anointing upon you and release the rivers of living water from My throne into your heart. 2 Chronicles 5:13, John 7:37-39.
I love you. Be filled with My Spirit and let Me restore what the locust ate.