Billy Joe Daugherty - Recovering What the Devil Has Stolen

Contents

Men do not despise a thief if he steals to satisfy his hunger when he is starving.

Yet if he is caught , he must pay sevenfold, though it costs him all the wealth of his house.

Proverbs 6:30 ,31 NIV

"It is time to recover what the devil has stolen from you... The principles of God's Word work. To recover financially, sow seed into the work of God, even in a time of famine. God is not limited by an unstable world economy."

Billy Joe Daugherty

Chapter One

God Is in the Recovery Business!

Now is the time to rise up and recover what you have lost because of the devil: your joy, peace, love, strength, integrity, dignity, health, home, marriage, family and other relationships.

Sometimes people seem to lie down and play dead when the devil comes along and takes their possessions. I guarantee you, if a thief tried to come into your home and take your possessions, you wouldn't sit there and say, "Take this, too." You would rise up and go after that which is yours.

God put a man in the garden to fellowship with him. Not only did man lose something, but God also lost something when Adam and Eve sinned. Have you ever wondered, "Why did God redeem man? Why didn't He just let him go?" The reason is , man belongs to God. "The earth is the Lords, and all its fullness, the world and those who dwell therein" (Psalm 24:1). God didn't let go of what belonged to Him!

In Genesis 3, God said that the seed of the woman would crush the head of the devil. Luke 19:10 says, "For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost." God is in the recovery business!

God recovered the prodigal son out of darkness. The day came when the prodigal son "came to himself" and went home to his father (Luke 15:11-32).

Redemption has to do with getting something back that you have lost. We were redeemed , not with silver and gold, but with the precious blood of Jesus Christ.

Knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers,

But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.

1 Peter 1:18 ,19

God loved us enough to make a way to get us back.

Chapter Two

Restoration Areas

Here are four Scriptural promises of restoration.

1. God will restore your soul.

"He restores my soul..." (Psalm 23:3). If you have lost your peace of mind and you are in torment and anxiety, God will restore you. He will lead you beside still waters (places of tranquility in the realm of the Spirit). He will rekindle, rebuild and rejuvenate strength in your soul.

When you are born again, you become alive unto God in your spirit, but the renewal in your soul (your mind, will, emotions and intellect) is a process. The renewal will come through daily meditation upon God's Word.

And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

Romans 12:2

2. God will restore the material possessions that have been stolen from you.

Proverbs 6:30 ,31 says:

People do not despise a thief if he steals to satisfy himself when he is starving.

Yet when he is found , he must restore sevenfold....

The thief has been found . John 10:10 describes the nature of the thief (Satan), which is the exact opposite of Jesus' nature: "The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I [Jesus] have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly."

Begin to believe for the sevenfold restoration of all that you have lost through the works of the devil.

3. God will restore health to you.

Jeremiah 30:17 says, "For I will restore health to you and heal you of your wounds, says the Lord...." If your health has been stolen , expect complete restoration.

4. God will restore the years Satan has stolen from you.

Joel 2:25 kjv says:

And I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten, the cankerworm, and the caterpillar, and the palmerworm, my great army which I sent among you.

Because Israel disobeyed God, destruction came upon their lives, their land, and their country, but God promised, "I will restore." Perhaps you have wasted years of your life. God says, "I will restore the years the devil has eaten."

Charles Story, a member of our congregation who heads up a prison ministry, wasted fifty-six years of his life before he was saved . Charles says, "I was a hard character. Rosemary, my wife, kept praying for me." The good news is, God can take a rough character and change his nature!

Today, Charles ministers on death row at McAlester State Prison and has served as chaplain at that facility. God is packing hours into his days, making up for those wasted years!

God will restore the years you have lost. Perhaps you feel that you missed your time to be a missionary, an evangelist or a pastor, or to do what God wanted you to do. It's not too late! Victory Bible Institute's oldest student was ninety-six years old! David Sizer then went into the jails and into the nursing homes on a regular basis to minister to inmates and to the "old folks"!

It's never too late to begin to do what God has called you to do.

Chapter Three

Avenue of Recovery: Forgiveness

Job was the richest man in the East. He was abundantly blessed with family, cattle and sheep. Every aspect of his life was blessed , but the devil came and destroyed his children, crops and livestock.

A few months later, double restoration came to Job when he prayed for his friends. "And the Lord turned the captivity of Job, when he prayed for his friends: also the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before" (Job 42:10 KJV).

Job's friends, who had all come against him, needed prayer. It would have been difficult, in the natural, for the average person to pray for these kinds of friends and really mean it, unless it was a prayer of vengeance. But it never pays to hold hard feelings toward someone who has said wrong things about you.

I spoke to a person who still had anger in him toward his father and an older brother after more than twenty years. The anger was a hindrance to the ministry to which he was called . He was four years older than me and had lived two houses behind my family in Magnolia, Arkansas. I hadn't seen him for more than twenty years.

During a service in our church, he opened up and let all that venom out! He forgave and let go of the offenses.

It's a new day when you forgive. It's a new day when you bless those who have hurt your life. If you want to recover what the devil has taken from you, then start forgiving, blessing and releasing those who have offended you.

I said to Randy, "When thoughts and feelings come that say the bitterness is still there, remember, that is not the truth." This is where most people mess up. They think when the thought or feeling comes back they still have the bitterness. When the thought or feeling returns, declare out loud : "I forgave that long ago. That was dealt with at Calvary, and I cashed in on it through forgiveness and release. It has no power over me."

A few weeks ago, I preached on the importance of forgiving and releasing those who have offended you. At the close of the service, among those who came to the altar were three young ladies who wanted prayer to help them forgive and release those who had caused great hurt in their lives.

The first young lady said, "I have to forgive Timothy McVeigh," I asked her, "Why?" She said, "My best friend went with her family to Oklahoma City and just minutes before the bomb went off, She walked into the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building and she was killed. I have held unforgiveness and bitterness toward him."