January 13th, 2024
Dear Friend,
Over the next few weeks, we’ll outline Four steps For 2024.
Last week, we discussed the first step to making good decisions in 2024 – Coming Home. Our true home, where all our fundamental rights and freedoms exist, is in God our Father.
Let’s relabel Step One – Returning Home to make it easier to remember the next three steps:
Step Two – Redeemed for Restoration
Step Three – Join the Resistance
Step Four – Rest Now and Then
Locusts
Did you know that locusts are a unique family of grasshoppers that transform and swarm? A bacterial brain infection transforms the quiet grasshopper from solitary to swarming and devouring everything in sight. An infected locust generates a sound with its legs, attracting others to form a devastating swarm.
What you listen to matters, so hear the truth.
Joel 2:25 – "I will restore the years that the locusts have eaten. I will give you all that the great locust, the young locust, and other locusts and their groups have eaten. All that My great army has eaten I will give you."
There is a lot to unpack, so let’s start with this:
Returning Home is a 2-part process – Redemption and Restoration.
Redemption
Redemption (legal definition): "The repayment by the borrower of outstanding loan obligations upon the agreed terms with the effect of extinguishing the debt."
Christ set us free from ___________ to __________. (He always moves us from one thing to something completely different. Never stranded. Always fully enabled).
Romans 8:2 – "For the Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the Law of Sin and Death."
Slavery is a difficult subject, but hopefully, our friendly grasshopper will make it easier. Studies show that the locust can return to the life of a peaceful grasshopper.
Restoration
We were once spiritually enslaved, and now we’re not. We need to find the damage and the right tools to repair it. When we talk about restoration in the context of historical slavery, the word reparations often comes to mind.
Reparations: "The compensation in money or materials payable by a defeated nation for damages to or expenditures sustained by another nation as a result of hostilities with the defeated nation."
To understand spiritual restoration, we must understand what was lost – a free mind. Someone was lost. Material compensation can repair a broken house, but not a mind. A broken mind is really a bound spirit. That’s what spiritual bondage is.
A free spirit is broken by removing every hope of freedom until it submits. That’s how wild horses are tamed and trained to respond to a bit and bridle – by breaking their spirit.
“That’s just the way it is.”
“Keep your head down and do your duty. That’s all you can control.”
And that’s not all. Studies show that children born into slavery not only inherited (without being taught) their parent’s beliefs but also developed a fixed mindset over generations. Entire nations were “subdued” by beliefs cemented over generations.
Rooted Belief:
Locusts with bacteria on the mind will continue their “zombie” behavior for 2-5 generations. Humans are no different.
Today, child trafficking has surpassed all other slavery in human history combined. Why are we allowing this to happen? There are many blatant and less subtle forms of slavery, but the root is as ancient as the human race.
The ancient root belief that split one family into two sides was not about inequality. It was a departure from the common belief in One God – Elohim versus false Elohims. And the false Elohims – they were human.
That’s why the Only True And Living Elohim said, “You shall have no other gods before Me. Without My wisdom, you will become gods of:
- Wealth without work.
- Pleasure without conscience.
- Knowledge without character.
- Commerce without morality.
- Science without humanity.
- Religion without sacrifice.
- Politics without principle.
(Seven social sins – Frederick Lewis Donaldson, popularized by Gandhi)
Two Sides of the One Mind
My name, Monisha, has an ancient meaning of One God (mon – yeshua), and one mind (mun – inshan), or intelligent.
Studies on the human mind and behavior show that we have two consciousnesses. Scripture defines them as old and new nature – the Mind of the Flesh and the Mind of the Spirit.
In one major study on the two hemispheres of the human brain and how each half responds to stimuli, the same response was recorded. The unaffected hemisphere responded with aggression to dominance behavior, and the other hemisphere responded with immediate submission without any awareness of the dominance behavior stimuli.
2 Timothy 1:7 – "For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love, and a sound mind."
Both science and scripture agree that these two minds are at war. One is fearful and self-preserving, and the other is hopeful and creative.
Fear versus faith. The mind that can imagine, create, and dream is not a smarter one, but a freer one.
Maybe our Walls of Jericho, our Goliath, and our Mountain to Move are not what we thought.
The Power of Believing
If truth sets us free, then the truth we need to see today is that the power of a cemented belief works both ways. We have the power to the change false beliefs that caused the damage. That is our victory through Christ.
1 Corinthians 15:57 - O Death, where is your sting? O Grave, where is your victory? The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law (of sin). But thanks be to (the) God, who gives us the victory through our LORD Jesus Christ.
Where the Mind of Flesh caused predator/prey behavior, having the Mind of Christ restores us to right thinking.
What is right thinking or mindfulness, and how do we get there?
Right-Mindedness
The biblical word for right thinking is righteousness. Therefore, righteous works mean working the way you were designed to work, from the beginning– your true purpose. It’s not a list of dos and don’ts. It is about being who you were designed to be.
That means restoration is repairing the damage rather than repaying the damage. But, God did both through Christ. He paid for the damages, and the repair. Mercy and compassion.
Isaiah 40:10 - "See, the Sovereign LORD comes with power, and He rules with a mighty arm. See, His reward is with Him, and His recompense accompanies Him."
Be the Change
The Power to change is in our hands.
God can “restore the years the locusts have stolen” in one simple change of belief:
Hebrews 11:6 – "…He that comes to God (The Living Elohim) must believe that - He IS (The Living One Who Causes All Things To Live), and that - He IS the Rewarder of those who diligently seek Him (His Children)."
Believe this truth and cement this belief into a Rock you and generations after you can stand on. This is the House that God built for us.
Matthew 7:24-25 – “Therefore everyone who hears these words of Mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the Rock."
Perhaps you decided to trust God long ago, but you don’t see a change. A trapped mind cannot transform; a healed mind will naturally regenerate. And what a transformation that is!
Restoration is Transformation:
Forget the locusts and imagine a caterpillar transforming into a butterfly. The caterpillar and butterfly have the same DNA, but the caterpillar can only see light in black and white. Butterflies see everything in living color. That’s how they find food and participate in pollination. The caterpillar has to stick to a surface, but the butterfly has wings to let go and fly.
We may question, “Why did God allow a plague of locusts in the first place?”
Look at the image below. From left to right, this family of insect adaptations goes from wingless to winged -The same pre-existing DNA adapted for different abilities.
Now, look at the insects highlighted in light blue. Can you think of a Bible story connecting them together?
- What often looks like a plague is hiding a miracle.
- God’s transformations never regress. He adapts us, using our sufferings, for what used to be unavailable and impossible choices. From one family to another.
Grasshopper or butterfly. Which way do you want to go? The choice is yours.
Be Restored to Your First Family:
The orphan age is over. We are no longer fatherless and we are no longer powerless.
Romans 8:15 - For you have not received the Spirit of Bondage again to fear; but you have received the Spirit of Adoption, whereby we can cry, "Abba, Father."
One last thing, and this is really cool. The Hebrew word abba means father, originally spelled ab (Ab-ra’am – father of many nations).
Let’s break ab down by each letter’s meaning:
Aleph and Bet:
(NOTE: These letters are the beginning of the first aleph-bet (alphabet) and the root of all languages).
- aleph – chief in the beginning, first
- bet – house (family).
“The First Family.“
We are the First Family of the Living God. It is time to start living like we believe God is our Father. That is how God exalts a man, a woman, and a nation.
Psalm 46:10 – "Be still, and know that I AM (The Living God Who Causes All Things to Live) God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth."
Take your redemption and restoration. It is your welcome home gift from your Father, who loves you. The old is over, and the new has begun.
Your future is limitless.
Believing Him,
Monisha
