Restore our captivity, O LORD, as the streams in the South. Those who sow in tears shall reap with joyful shouting. Psalm 126:4-5.
Today your LORD (יהוה) God (אלוהים) says:
Rejoice, again I say rejoice! Most people are complainers, but the truth is that if you really knew what you have been freely given in Christ Jesus you would be rejoicing with joy unspeakable filled with glory!
“Things which eye has not seen and ear has not heard, and which have not entered the heart of man, all that God has prepared for those who love Him.” For to us God revealed them through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God. 1 Corinthians 2:9-11.
Do you really know how loved, how forgiven, and how blessed you are? I accounted all your sins to Jesus and He took your punishment so that your sins are gone, I remember them no more. He paid your debt at My throne, and you can come to Me with confidence. I made you My heir in Him, a joint heir with Christ, so that the double portion of the Kingdom and all therein is yours. I blessed you with every heavenly blessing in Christ Jesus and I put My Holy Spirit in you and on you. And I have given you the authority to speak My Words and to do My works. I made Jesus to be wisdom for you, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. In My Son, we are one.
The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one; I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me. John 17:22-23.
Why is so important that you rejoice in order to be restored and filled with the Spirit? Isn’t repentance and return enough?
The answer is simple, without joy, even if you have restoration, you will not keep it but will lose it all, such as healing, prosperity, and the like. Why? Joy is your strength and without strength you are easy prey for Satan to rob you and blind your minds to the light of the GOOD NEWS of the glory of Christ shining in your hearts. In seeing Jesus, you see Me in action among you—healing, providing, empowering, and raising up to new life.
You may sow in tears for the past years you lost, but you will only reap with rejoicing. WITH JOY you will draw water at the springs of Salvation. For I am your STRENGTH and SONG. Isaiah 12:
But now I will take you to a prophecy that I spoke to My servant Joel that he then released into the earth so I could perform it. And I have, though the vision has not been quite completed but it will be soon. This will show you how to come to times of refreshing, for now is the acceptable time and now is the day of Salvation!
Joel told the people that returning to Me and forsaking their sinful way of life was the only way to avoid devastation, tribulation, and the coming wrath. And he revealed that restoration and salvation would come if they would repent, return and rejoice. And I would not only restore them to abundance and every blessing but that I would pour My Spirit on them so they would all be My prophets.
“Yet even now,” declares the LORD, “Return (shuv (שׁוּב)) to Me with all your heart, and with fasting, weeping and mourning; and rend your heart and not your garments.” Now return to the LORD your God, for He is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger, abounding in lovingkindness and relenting of evil. Joel 2:12-13.
Here you see you return with repentance of the heart. What does it mean to rend your heart and not your garments? It means to change your heart to reject sin and live according to the truth of My Word, to change in your inner man, and not just an outward show of remorse but with no real change in your mind and conduct. It means to repent in its fullest sense.
The high priest rent his garments in front of Jesus saying he was in the presence of blasphemy against Me, which was false. It would have been better for had he rent his heart in repentance and believed in that Jesus was My Son, the promised Messiah, and changed his hardened heart. If today you hear My voice, harden not your hearts.
And what happens when you rend your hearts in repentance and return to Me? And not just one or two but a whole nation?
Then the LORD will be zealous for His land and will have pity on His people. The LORD will answer and say to His people, “Behold, I am going to send you grain, new wine and oil, and you will be satisfied in full with them; and I will never again make you a reproach among the nations. Joel 2:15-19.
I have told you that you who repent and believe in My Son and return to Me, that I create you anew in Christ and then I seal you in Christ and bless you with every spiritual blessing in Heaven. So what do you do about that? You rejoice as one does at festivals, as one does of the spoils of battle after a great victory. For Christ has won the battle and given you the booty.
By His knowledge the Righteous One, My Servant, will justify the many, as He will bear their iniquities. Therefore, I will allot Him a portion with the great, and He will divide the booty with the strong; because He poured out Himself to death, and was numbered with the transgressors; yet He Himself bore the sin of many, and interceded for the transgressors. Isaiah 53:11-12.
And did you notice who He gave the restoration, the great treasures won from the battle, to? The strong. And who are the strong? Those who are rejoicing, for My joy is your strength. Draw close to Me, which is repenting and returning, and in My presence is fullness of joy. I share My Word with you to give you My joy so your joy may be complete.
And as we continue with the prophecy of Joel you will see that after the repentance and the return, you must rejoice in My goodness to you in the forgiveness, the new birth from above, and the opening to you of the Kingdom, and by rejoicing you are open to receive the abundance of restoration.
So rejoice, O sons of Zion, and be glad in the LORD your God; for He has given you the early rain for your vindication. And He has poured down for you the rain, the early and latter rain as before. The threshing floors will be full of grain, and the vats will overflow with the new wine and oil. “I will restore to you for the years that the swarming locust has eaten, the creeping locust, the stripping locust and the gnawing locust, My great army which I sent among you. You will have plenty to eat and be satisfied and praise the name of the LORD your God, who has dealt wondrously with you; then My people will never be put to shame. Joel 2:23-26.
The rejoicing in My forgiveness, My goodness, and My love not only brought restoration but an abundance on top of that, the early and the latter rain. And with that abundance came My Spirit, the overflowing joy, the anointing with the oil of joy, pouring down into your spirits giving you My Word of edification, exhortation, and encouragement. The filling with the Holy Spirit.
It will come about after this [i.e., repent, return, and rejoice] that I will pour out My Spirit on all mankind; and your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions. Even on the male and female servants, I will pour out My Spirit in those days.” Joel 2:28-29.
I want you all to be prophets, speaking My Words of power into the earth, releasing the knowledge of My glory as the waters cover the sea.
I love you. It really is so simple to come into your times of refreshing when life becomes pure joy for you and Me in oneness of purpose, love, and victory. You have the victory over every battle. Jesus already won it for you, you have only to walk it out in the authority He has entrusted you with to bless every person on earth. Like faithful Abraham.