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Thank you for joining me today  for the Tune In Thursday linkup … before we get to today’s post, I want to apologize for not getting around to commenting on everyone who linked up last week.  I do love reading all the posts you link here each week, and I look forward to connecting with you that way, however my travel, teaching, and book rewriting schedule has been rather full.

 

My goal with hosting this link up is three fold:

1. Build authentic community with those of you who link your posts.

2. Encourage and Inspire

3. Provide a fun place each week for you to share the message God has placed on your heart.

I am working on a survey that I hope to have posted here in the next week or two and you can weigh in on the importance of me visiting/commenting on each post, or the possibility of highlighting a post each week.

One final thing,  as  I continue to work on rewrites with my publisher, I am looking for individuals  who are interested in being a  featured guest writer over the summer months here on Tune In Thursday.  More details will be coming in the next few weeks regarding this as well, but feel free to message me if you are interested.

 

The Lost Will be Found

Side Note: Today’s post originally debuted on our church blog (www.rclacey.com) back in April – Enjoy!

Have you ever lost something that you valued or dearly treasured?

 

Maybe the item lost was a person or a relationship?

 

Maybe a piece of jewelry? Or money? An item of clothing?

 

Maybe what you lost wasn’t worth much monetarily, but it still was important to you.

 

I am a big stickler for not misplacing items, losing things, or forgetting about items and leaving them behind.  I will even double and triple check hotel rooms for even the smallest of items to make sure I am not leaving anything behind.  Just ask my kids. When they were growing up, I hated the fact that they would carelessly “forget” or lose items of clothing such as jackets, shoes, headphones, etc.  I think you get the picture.  I am not sure why it bothers me to have things misplaced or lost, maybe it’s because I work hard and save money to get nice things?

 

Last summer when my mom came to visit, she lost something, a watch.  It wasn’t worth a whole lot of money, but it had value to her.  She looked high and low in her bags and other items before she left and even after she got home.  She had us searching high and low too.  We looked under the bed, in the sheets, behind the dressers, in all the drawers, in and under the couch; basically anywhere that this item could have fallen or been accidentally placed, and then forgotten.  We searched for months and yet never found her watch.  She never found her watch either. In all honesty, we had chalked it up to never being found again.  However, at the end of February, I received a text with a picture of my mom wearing the watch that had been missing.  It turned up in her make-up bag!

 

What????

 

There’s just no way!

 

How could this possibly happen?

 

I know she has looked in her little makeup bag probably a thousand times between last summer and when it “suddenly” and miraculously appeared!

 

As I was contemplating how this could happen, the Lord nudged me and said, “Don’t you remember?  I am the restorer of the lost and lost things.”  Yes, you read that right, He not only restores and returns those who are lost, He also returns things that have been lost, forgotten, or stolen.

 

 

When I felt, the Lord speak those words to my heart, I had this faint recollection of a testimony I had heard 9 years ago from Bishop Joseph Garlington.  I can’t recall the scripture he preached from nor the details around it, only the fact something seemingly insignificant, such as a pocket knife, had miraculously returned.  The pocket knife had significant meaning to the person and they had to leave it behind at the airport security checkpoint.  Yet mysteriously, or rather shall we say miraculously, it just appeared in their belongings one day.

 

Bishop Garlington asked if we wanted something back, and if so, to ask the Lord for it.  He asked us all to say this phrase and fill in the blank appropriately. “Lord, I want _______________ BACK!”

 

We all did.

 

 

For some in the room that night, the thing they wanted back was a person.  Maybe it was their son or daughter who was no longer in relationship with the Lord nor their earthly family members.  Some wanted their health restored or their special item returned, like that pocket knife.  For others, it was the loss of a wedding ring, the loss of an inheritance that was taken from them, or finances lost from business ventures.  It mattered not what the “thing” was that we were asking the Lord to return to us.  We were making a prophetic declaration and asking the Lord to move His hand of mercy and favor over our lives.  We were asking Him to return the lost.

 

As we have just come out of the  Easter Season, we celebrated what God’s Son, Jesus, did for us and we focus our attention on sharing the Good News of the gospel with lost souls.  Those lost souls may be family members and friends we love or anyone around us that does not yet have a relationship with Jesus.

 

I am reminder of three parables Jesus told in Luke 15.

 

The parable of the Lost Sheep

The parable of the Lost Coin

The parable of the Prodigal Son

 

Each one of these parables point us to the fact that there is value placed on everyone.

 

 

 “Or what woman, having ten silver coins, if she loses one coin, does not light a lamp and sweep the house and seek diligently until she finds it? And when she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin that I had lost.’ Just so, I tell you, there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents” (Luke 15:8-10).

I also believe that God cares about the things we care about, like my mom’s watch for instance.  He knew she treasured that watch.  She had looked high and low, and it wasn’t as if she was intentionally careless with it, but it was missing nonetheless. Yet it never left her mind.  She frequently asked over the last 8-9 months if we had found it.  I believe that no matter how long something or someone has been lost, God has a way of returning them.  It may not be in the way we think or even in our timing, but God’s Word says that He will restore everything that has been lost.

 

God, your God, will restore everything you lost; he’ll have compassion on you; he’ll come back and pick up the pieces from all the places where you were scattered. No matter how far away you end up, God, your God, will get you out of there and bring you back to the land your ancestors once possessed. It will be yours again. He will give you a good life and make you more numerous than your ancestors.  God, your God, will cut away the thick calluses on your heart and your children’s hearts, freeing you to love God, your God, with your whole heart and soul and live, really live.  God, your God, will put all these curses on your enemies who hated you and were out to get you.  And you will make a new start, listening obediently to God, keeping all his commandments that I’m commanding you today. God, your God, will outdo himself in making things go well for you: you’ll have babies, get calves, grow crops, and enjoy an all-around good life (Deuteronomy 30:3-9 MSG).

 

Is there Someone or Something you have lost and want returned?

 

Then ask the Lord if He would return it:

 

“Lord, I want _______________ BACK!”

 

Let’s expect God to move in miraculous ways!

 

 

Welcome and Thank you for joining me for #TuneInThursday it is an honor to have you here!

I have had a few people ask for a badge/button to display on your blogs.  I would absolutely be honored if you would display it, or link back here in some way.  Thank you!

Tune In Thursday

Now let’s get this party started, feel free to link 1-3 posts:

 

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Do you wonder if God still speaks today?  Do you wonder if He would ever speak to you personally?  Do you long to hear the voice of God in your life?

Have your read other books on hearing from God, but long for hands on practical application? or are you looking for ways to  move you forward  hearing from God?

If you answered YES to any of those questions, then I have exactly what you need.  I now have an online e-course designed to equip you in understanding that God still speaks today, and He longs to speak directly to you, through His word, and others.  He longs to encourage you, strengthen you and comfort you.  The training on this site, is fully based on Scripture, and taken from my training manual Releasing God’s heart through Hearing His Voice. 

I have been teaching these classes internationally for the last 10+ years equipping and training believers in discerning the Ways God speaks.  God is speaking, Can you Hear Him?

2. My new membership site, d2htrainging.com has official opened, I invite you to check it out today, and develop a deeper relationship with the Lord, as you learn to hear Him speak to your heart.

Looking for other Great Inspirational Parties. Click Here to see where I Link-Up weekly.

Several Submissions have been featured at Blessed Transgressions, an Online Magazine:

Balancing the Warrior & the Princess We’re Called to Be

Who we Are and Whose We Are

Trusting God When it Seems Illogical

Will You Sit with Me? (Jesus is Calling.)

My Post “Climb Every Mountain” was featured in the August monthly link-up at : Life on Intention Link-up Party

My Post: The Power of your Story was featured here:

My Post “What’s in a Name?” was featured here:

The Luke 2:52 Project

My Post: “Will You Sit with Me?” was featured here:

My Post: “The Journey through Change” was featured here:

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