RESTITUTION

RESTITUTION

 

 

 

Beloved friends, I welcome you to today’s broadcast. I am still your brother and friend Pastor Amara Uwaeziozi. I want to bring to you a message I penned down again in the late 70’s, in our Maiden Magazine, The Master’s Riches. It is fundamental to Christianity; it is a lost message in today’s Christianity, but it remains foundational, and it remains relevant. It’s one of the things that make one a genuine Christian. And it’s titled Restitution.

 

RESTITUTION

 

PRAYER

 

Let us pray.

 

Heavenly Father – The Father of our LORD JESUS CHRIST, grant Your servant unction, anointing, clear expression to communicate YOUR Word to YOUR people. We pray, O LORD GOD Almighty, that the entrance of the Word will give YOUR people light, and they may have understanding, and take necessary actions GOD, O GOD our Father, to manifest the character of our LORD JESUS CHRIST…we pray in JESUS Mighty Name. Amen!

 

Restitution! Restitution, according to Webster, is giving back to the rightful owner something that has been lost or has been taken away, making good for loss or damage. This definition agrees with the teaching of the bible on restitution, both in The Old and the New Testament. In fact, JESUS teaches that restitution is one of the evidences of genuine repentance. Restitution. We will pursue it: even though it is a forgotten doctrine. But it still profitable to our souls today –  still the way to go to exhibit genuine repentance.

Now that you are alive from the dead, throw away anything that belongs to the dead. Be drastic about it. Don’t allow anything that belongs to the devil to dwell in the temple of The Holy Spirit. Be ruthless with yourself; search yourself along with The HOLY SPIRIT; and anything HE tells you to put right do so without a moment’s hesitation. Any cobweb you neglect to remove at this time will later on turn an iron cage that binds and hinders your spiritual growth. Meticulously clean the house.

 

Restitution not only includes returning things that do not belong to you: it includes – revitalizing dead relationship with others. Go to that your enemy and say, I am wrong; I am sorry, please, forgive. This is not a sign of weakness: it is evidence of power from on-high. It is evidence of power from on-high.

Let the spirit tear away every grudge, every bitterness and unforgiving spirit. If GOD has truly forgiven your innumerable sins, you can now, by HIS grace, forgive infinitely small sins others committed against you. Be a cleansed vessel so that The LORD will begin afresh to fill you with HIS heavenly treasures in place of iniquities by the devil for which you are now ashamed. Do not rest until you possess a conscience void of offence towards GOD and towards men.

 

I need to remind you that you remember that restitution is not a one-for-all act. It does not terminate with the wrongs done before your conversion and righted after your conversion. It continues throughout your pilgrimage here in the flesh. Any slander, any gossip, any grudge against anybody – including fellow Christians – must be confessed and be forgiven, if you must maintain a vital fellowship with GOD and other believers.

 

If you rightly understood what restitution is as I’m enumerating you discover that restitution is one of GOD’s efficient law enforcement officer to guide the believer’s attitudes and actions. If I know in advance that if I gossip or slander that restitution will arrest me and drag me to my victim to make amends then it is a painfully useless and fruitless exercise to engage in slander and gossip. If I realize that lying against anybody will result in restitution arresting me and compelling me to swallow my lies before my victim, then, I’d rather speak the truth from onset.

 

If stealing anything means restitution bundling me with my loot to the rightful owner to beg to be relieved of my stolen goods then I will only be the biggest fool in Christendom to engage in such exercise.

 

The only key to live without restitution is to love others. Do good to them; speak good of them in their absence. That’s what we see in Philippians 4:8. If restitution will arrest me and make me to confront the person I have wrong face-to-face to make amends, then it’s better from onset you decide to do the right thing: to live right.

 

I really think that many Christians talk and live carelessly, because this versatile doctrine of CHRIST has been thrown to the winds in many quarters. I hope you will not desire to corrode your spiritual vitality by neglecting this precious doctrine. State it before you as a guide and heed it’s corrections in your Godly work with HIM, and it will guide you to live a holy, righteous, blameless life before GOD and before man.

 

Friends, is there anything that is bothering you and you have stifled your neck, and your conscience keeps reminding you, as a referee blowing the whistle: you didn’t do well – you didn’t do well? The grace of GOD is there for you to stand up boldly and go and make amends. Return what you have that is not yours. Go to someone you have wrong and seek forgiveness. Confess your sins, one to another, and you’ll be forgiven. That will ensure that you are on the right path.

 

If you have lied and procured things through lying, why don’t you make restitution? I will still stay in church and do all the religious things whereas behind us the sheep is bleating. Was it not Samuel who told Saul, if you have done all that GOD says you should do why are there these bleating of the sheep behind you? You’re covering up.

 

The Bible says, if you cover your sins, you will not prosper; but if you repent and you confess your sins and repent from them and procure forgiveness, you will be forgiven. And that will free your conscience to serve GOD fully. It’s not proper that when you are like me preaching – you are preaching something, but you are preaching what you are guilty of. That’s why the Bible says, you that said that someone should not steal, do you steal? You condemn others for gossiping. Do you gossip? You slander other and you preach against it – that is hypocrisy; and that is unacceptable to GOD.

 

Beloved friends, let’s go back to the structuring of restitution and get our Christian life in line with GOD.

 

Let us pray.

 

PRAYER

 

Heavenly Father, and the Father of our LORD JESUS CHRIST, YOU, in YOUR deterrent will, have made an avenue for us to make amends: to repair relationships, to undo things we did in time-past and have a clean conscience to pursue GOD and righteousness, grant that my listeners who, O GOD our Father, are under any conviction now, LORD, will take bold step and make restitution. Recover peace in their lives, recover relationships that are lost and recover spiritual vitality; and bring shame to the devil who has seared consciences.

Thank YOU, Father, for hearing us…in JESUS Mighty Name I pray. Amen.

 

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