The Four “R’s (No Matter What)

Jul 10

Written By Sheryle Cruse

No, I am not having an alphabet cereal fun time, but I am endeavoring to have a spiritual outcome to this true story. Some names have been changed to keep those involved in this story safe and secure from all spiritual attacks on their lives.

The Four “R’s” are explained from the Bible.

Restoration is described as God’s act of bringing things back to a state of wholeness, health, and prosperity, often surpassing their original condition. It’s a recurring theme of renewal and redemption throughout both the Old and New Testaments.

These references reflect God’s desire to restore His relationships with humanity and creation.

Especially the Nation of Israel.

Job’s fortunes:

In Job 42:10, “And the Lord restored Job’s losses when he prayed for his friends. Indeed, the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before.”

This is but one of many examples of God and His restorative Power.

Biblical restoration goes beyond simply fixing what is broken. It implies complete renewal and an abundance of blessings.

God’s initiative is primarily HIM who initiates and accomplishes restoration, demonstrating His Grace and Love throughout.

Restoration from God can encompass physical healing, spiritual renewal, and the mending of broken hearts and the relationships that brought on the brokenness to begin with.

It is His Great Mercy prevailing in this restoration process.

The New Testament highlights Jesus’ role in restoring humanity’s relationship with God through His death and resurrection.

It is His shed Blood that bought back our relationship with the Father.

It is because of the remission of sin.

Luke 1:77, “To give knowledge of salvation to His people by the remission of their sins, through the tender mercy of our God with which the Dayspring from on High has visited us; to give light to those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.”

Revive (Revival):

Jeremiah 30:17, “For I will restore health to you, and your wounds I will heal, declares the Lord.”

To revive is like a heart patient who has flat-lined, and the electrical shock applied by the doctor, REVIVES the heart to beat again.

Shock value is placed on how God through Jesus, brings the dead things that have died and are rotting in a spiritual grave, back to life and living.

True revival, in the sense of our nation turning to God, involves the church being shocked back into repentance (first), so that true revival can begin again, and hopefully never stop.

If the church does not repent, then the hope of a sweep of God’s Spirit is almost impossible.

It is probable and possible.

“If My people, who are called by My Name, will humble themselves and pray, and seek My Face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from Heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land. 2 Chronicles 7:14.

IF MY PEOPLE will do what this scripture directs the church to do, and be sincerely repentant, then and only then can revival begin.

This is my opinion, so I hope you get the love behind my words regarding revival.

God will do what His Word says whether we get in line with Him or not.

It is corporate repentance versus individual repenting of sin.

Reconcile:

The concept of reconciliation involves finding a way to make different ideas, facts, or situations agree or work together.

It will kill conflicts withing people, jobs, and even our walk with Jesus as we repent.

The real reconciliation is proved by the shed Blood of Jesus for our sins.

He has reconciled us back to normalcy with the Heavenly Father.

Repentance:

(I saved the best for last).

Simply put, get on your knees and talk to Jesus about your issues and sins.

Spend time in a state of sorrowful regret for what you and I have done.

Daily, hourly and minute by minute, try and talk to Him all day long.

From the time your feet hit the floor by your bed, till you lay your head down on a pillow; talk to Him.

The quicker we repent, and do not linger without speaking in prayer to the Most High, the cleaner we become, and peace arrives.

Sooner, than later, is the best medicine called repentance, a turning away from the sins we do.

Run from them, do not jog or walk crawl.

Run for your life, as your spiritual life depends on daily repentance.

I must pause and tell a true story about my life, not to interrupt, but to clarify why restoration, revival, reconciling, and repentance play such a big part in my 47 years since my Salvation in 1977.

I was living in my car in 1991, because of a backslidden time in my life when I repented.

I re-affirmed my Salvation in Christ and truly meant what I prayed.

I was in a state of almost being homeless. I lived in a 1974 Datsun B-210 two door car. My spare tire was my pillow at night, as I slept at the rest area parking for 18-wheeler trucks.

Some nights, I slept by the dumpster at a motel nearby.

My life was in this condition because of my sin.

I was still working full time as a baker, but my financial life was in ruin.

One night, around midnight in November in Portland, Oregon, I was reading my Bible inside of my car, using a penlight to read by.

I didn’t want to run down my battery, because I needed my car to start in the morning. It was how I got to work.

I ran across Joel Chapter 2, by accident.

Well, by accident in my mind, but it was the Holy Ghost doing this.

(I have injected my actual thoughts at this time in my life, as exactly how I was thinking during the reading of the scriptures).

I began to read, not at the beginning of this chapter, but began at verse 21.

It read, “Fear not, O land…”

(Boy was I living in fear inside of a car late at night, continuing through verse 27).

“...be glad and rejoice, for the Lord has done marvelous things!...”

(I did not feel He had done much for me at this time).

“…Do not be afraid, you beasts of the field…”

(I was one paycheck away from full homelessness and would have felt like grazing like an animal for sure if that happened).

“...For the open pastures are springing up, and the tree bears its fruit; the fig tree and the vine yield their strength. Be glad then, you children of Zion, and rejoice in the Lord your God; for He has given you the former rain faithfully…”

(Boy was it raining at the truck area I was parked in during November in Oregon).

“...And He will cause the rain to come down for you-the former rain, and the latter rain in the first month.

**The threshing floors shall be full of wheat, and the vats shall overflow with new wine and oil. So, I will restore to you (I thought for a half-second, YOU mean little ole’ ME?) ...the years that the swarming locust has eaten, the crawling locust, the consuming locust, and the chewing locust, My great army which I sent among you…”**

(Swarming locust is pressure in a divorce, crawling locust is health issues and almost homeless, consuming locust, in my mind at that moment was all I had was being eaten up, financially, physically and mentally, and the chewing locust felt like taking three steps forward and five steps back, because I just could not get ahead in my life at this time. Seemed like no hope for me at all).

“...You shall eat in plenty and be satisfied…”

(I had a half of a package of Ritz Crackers, and a small can of Vienna sausages to my name. Payday was a week off, so I was in a forced fasting period. “Eat in PLENTY!” I would have been grateful for some crumbs on the floorboard of my Datsun at that point. I lost 40 pounds during my living-in-my-car era.)

“...and praise the Name of the Lord your God, who has dealt wondrously with you.”

(Yes, He was dealing with me in all manner of living and surviving this cold night in a monsoon of rain. I was beginning to thank Him at this very moment that I did have something to eat, and a dry car with a sleeping bag. I looked around the inside of the car, thanking Him, with tears in my eyes, knowing full well, there were hundreds of homeless people in Portland during this time in1991.

There were over 3,200 homeless people in Oregon, statewide, with the majority in big cities like Portland. 600 were children. Some were in emergency housing or in shelters, but many lived on the streets. Under overpasses with tents, if they were fortunate enough to have a tent to stay dry in.

I am in my car, not a tent. I was very thankful at this very moment continuing to read Joel Chapter 2. Tears dripping on to the pages of my only Bible).

“...And My people will never be put to shame. Then you shall know that I am in the midst of Israel…”

(In my car at that very moment was my thinking that He was with me).

“I am the Lord your God…” (Me, and He is my God) “and there is no other. My people shall never be put to shame.”

Wow. What can I say now to what I just wrote to you?

Believe it or not, as I am writing this letter, I am spiritually reliving that moment in my Datsun. I am sitting here at a computer screen and a keyboard, writing, but I can see that moment in the rain, pelting down on to the roof of my Datsun. In the spirit, I can see but I can physically smell too. Right now!

I can smell the rain. I can hear the trucks idling their Diesel engines.

I can see the words from my Bible, as they literally hovered in midair in my car.

I am reliving this, but at the very moment, in my cold interior of my car, in a sleeping bag with a penlight, I am worshipping my Jesus, and as I write this now, I can feel His presence with me as I type.

He never left me in that moment in 1991.

Those words from the Bible that hovered in midair in my car were profound to me.

I said to myself, at that very moment I finished reading about locust and restoration; I blurted out loud to the Lord, “You mean You will do this for me?”

The very next morning, as I was preparing to put on my last set of white “baker” clothing that had been laundered the day before, I was getting a sense of a miracle coming for me.

After work, I made my way inside the truck stop cafeteria when the miracle happened. A temporary job at the truck stop, unloading a truck.

That money I earned, though it was only $40.00 cash. It paid for some fuel, a hot meal, and a motel room for the night.

I showered after my meal at the truck stop and turned on Christian television on the black and white television inside this motel room.

With my few belongings, including an old briefcase full of my old photographs of my family, and some bills that needed to be paid, I watched the preacher on the T.V.

It was E.V. Hill preaching. He said, as he pointed at the camera inside this big church that was filming him live for Christian television…

“I see a man out there, who knew the Lord Jesus, but fell away for a season. You are not a failure, and your life is about to take a turn for the good. You may have failed in your past, but Jesus loves you, and you will come out of your current circumstances soon. He will restore to you the years that may have been deemed by you as wasted; and He will give back to you what was eaten away from your life because of your sin, and your circumstances. Many of those things were not your fault. You are taking blame for things that you had nothing to do with. Be assured of His love for you, Sir.”

Then he finished his message with John 8:36.

“FOR whom the Son sets free, is free indeed.”

Wow again!

God read my mail through that preacher.

Yes, at that moment, I was in the Spirit realm in my heart. I turned off the television, got on my knees and wept. I wept because I had discounted the ability of the Lord to restore me for years.

Even though I had felt His Presence in the car the night before, I still had my doubts of His ability to restore me.

I repented for my doubts and unbelief's that I had in my heart.

It was only a month later that the Lord gave me an apartment.

And the rest is history now.

From a moment in a car at a rest area. Reading Joel 2, mostly out loud to myself as the rain beat on the roof of the car. It rained so hard, it was coming down sideways and hitting the car windows so hard that the seals in the windows leaked. The inside of my car was getting damp.

My perspective had to shift at that moment when I said, “You mean You will do this for me?”

He did, and He continues to restore the years all those bugs ate from my life.

The Four R’s.

Restoration, Revival, Reconciliation and Repentance.

Not necessarily in this exact order, but the Lord Jesus has done what He said He would do for me, and He can for you too.

Never give up or give in to the lies the world says about you.

The enemy of your soul is out to steal, kill and destroy your dreams.

Whatever you do, and wherever you go, remember this one thing.

Deuteronomy 31:6, “Be strong and of good courage, do not fear or be afraid, for the Lord your God goes with you, and He will never leave you or abandon you.”

He is with you now.

He was with me then and is still here as I finish this thought.

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever.

Trust Him to restore you. Fully and completely.

He loves all of us the same.

He is no respecter of persons.

He is there right now with you as you read this account of my life.

From the eyes of a child, way back when, I witnessed many things that ate away at my young life. I have been set free.