“RESTORE” by Dickey Porter

“RESTORE” by Dickey Porter

My wife and I recently had about 3 days vacation at the beach. I think it may have been our first vacation to the beach alone. Maybe one other time, we went to the beach over 20 years ago without our children, but I don’t know that for sure.

We arrived on a Tuesday evening and on Wednesday morning, I arose and went out to the balcony of the condo that we were renting and took a seat in a comfortable cushioned chair that was there for our enjoyment. We were on the 11 floor of the condo and were facing the Gulf of Mexico at beautiful Gulf Shores, Alabama. Wanda was still in bed or inside the condo doing other things.

After watching the waves crescendo upon the beach and listening to the constant roar of the surf as the waves battled each other for supremacy, and not seeing anyone out this early to walk the beach looking for shells, I closed my eyes and began seeking the Lord.

In meditation, prayer, and seeking the face of God, I ask him to show me what he wanted to say to me this day. Almost immediately, the 23rd chapter of the book of Psalms came into the spirit of my mind and I began to rehearse this Scripture in my heart. I don’t know how anyone else meditates the Word of God, but when the Lord gives me a Scripture, I slowly, word by word, roll it over and over in my mind, listening for the small, still voice that comes through intimate relationship with Jesus, my Saviour and Captain of my soul. His word to me was ‘restore’.

I analyze each sentence and phrase, remembering all the times in the past, when I read, studied, heard preached or taught and try to look beyond surface truth and get to the meat of the matter. What are you wanting to communicate to me, Lord?

So here is how it went that morning. “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.” To want is to be lacking in some area of life. When we have Jesus, we have more than enough. We have life and that more abundantly. Many just don’t know that yet.

“He makes me to lie down in green pastures.” Wow! I could write a book on this phrase alone. Do I have a choice to lie down, or does he “make” me lie down? Green pastures speaks volumes. The color green is the key to a deeper understanding of this verse of Scripture.

But before I get into the color green, I want to talk about, ‘to lie down’. To lie down speaks of rest and intimacy. The place where those who are in love go to share their innermost thoughts, feelings, desires, pleasures, and benefits of a godly centered marriage or relationship. This is the same place that the Lord wants to be with us. He wants to be closer to us than any other on the earth. This is the reason for our very being in the first place.

Song of Solomon, says that our bed is green. This is speaking of the Lord and his beloved. This is the closeness that the Lord wants with all his children. In the book of Revelation, the rainbow around the throne of God is emerald in color. Emeralds are green.

Jesus is the Shepherd, we are the sheep. To lie down in green pastures is to have a close intimate relationship with the Lord, thus fulfilling not only our desires to know him more, but for him to know us in a close and intimate way.

“He leads me beside the still waters.” Still waters are basically a reflection pool where the water is so calm and still that it appears to be a mirror. Thus, what we see on the surface of this mirror is a reflection of what is going on in the heavenly realm. The place where we are already sitting with Christ.

The purpose for this is so that we get an image of who we are in the heavenly Christ, and then bring that reflection back into our world of existence and to the people that God has given to us to influence for the Kingdom of God. This is our purpose.

This is an image of unconditional love, forgiveness, patience, kindness, mercy, faithfulness, Holiness, compassion, healing, giving, and every other aspect of the nature and character of our Lord and God.

What we see too many times on earth is the strife, division, judgmentalism, back biting, competition, lusts, worldliness, accusations, and damning everyone else to hell that don’t believe like we do. And this stuff that is going on in man’s church and not the Lord’s church.

“He restores my soul.” This is where the Lord stopped me in my meditation of the beloved 23rd Psalm. The 23rd Psalm is probably the 2nd Scripture that your Mother taught you as a child. This coming on the heels of John 3:16 – “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in him shall not perish, but have everlasting life.”

The 23rd Psalm is quoted at almost every funeral that you have ever attended. Ministers use this Psalm to try to comfort the hearts of loved ones who are left after a family member goes on to be with the Lord. But they reference the passing of the loved one as one that has walked through the valley of the shadow of death, when I believe that this is only surface truth.

The nugget below this surface truth of the 23rd Psalm is that we walk through the valley of the shadow of His death in our earthly walk and because of what Jesus did for and as us, we fear no evil, etc.

But, the reason that the Lord makes us lie down in green pastures, and leads us beside the still waters is to restore our soul. To restore, according to Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance means:  1. to restore to its former state. 2. To be in its former state.

There is no doubt that before the fall of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, there was no division between the soul and spirit of man. Sin created the breach that separated the will of man from the will of God. The will of man is in the soul of man and the will of God is in the spirit of man. Thus, we have warfare in our carnal mind.

There is constant warfare going on in the minds of men and women all over the earth today. Believers struggle with this as well as the heathen. The Apostle Paul so eloquently described this struggle in the 7th chapter of the book of Romans. The things that I should or would do, I don’t do, and the things that I shouldn’t do or wouldn’t do, that is what I do. Oh wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from this body of death? Thank God for Jesus.

Jesus reconnected the interface between God and man. He is the one who has bound up the breach. And he expects us to tell others that there is a bridge between the soul and spirit of man and that Jesus built that bridge.

What we need to do to get beyond all the struggle with our minds is to have them renewed. There is only one way. We must present our bodies as a living sacrifice. Do not be conformed to this world’s way of thinking and speaking. But be transformed to heaven’s way of thinking and speaking. This is called the mind of Christ. The Apostle Paul said that we have the mind of Christ. Most just don’t know how to tap into that wonderful mind. They don’t know how to search out the deep things of God or to live an overcoming joyful life. Those who have found out, must learn how to deal with the criticisms that come from others who are only religious minded without being offended.

When we reach that place in our maturity is when the joy unspeakable and full of glory happens to us. This is when we count it all joy when we fall into divers temptations, knowing that the trying of our faith is working patience in us.

Restore unto me, oh Lord, the joy of thy salvation. Your word is settled in heaven. Show me and help me to settle it in this earthen vessel.

Dickey Porter is a ministry son of Dr. Mark Hanby. You can contact him at: DickeyP@hotmail.com