Life is a continuum, especially for God’s people. This is to the extent that when they die, God’s resurrection power will on the day of rapture bring them up to meet with Jesus Christ in the air and to be with Him forever.

Christians are eagerly waiting for the day of rapture and the day of restoration of all things. The day of temporal restoration of Israel and the entire saints was symbolically shown to Prophet Ezekiel in Ezekiel 37:1-10. Verse 3 of that chapter says: “… And he said unto me, son of man, can these bones live? And I answered, O Lord God, thou knowest. 4: Again he said unto me, Prophesy upon these bones, and say unto them, O ye dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. 5: Thus saith the Lord God unto these bones; behold, I will cause breath to enter into you, and ye shall live. 6: And I will lay sinews upon you, and will bring up flesh upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and ye shall live; and ye shall know that I am the Lord. 7: So, I prophesied as I was commanded: and as I prophesied, there was a noise, and behold a shaking, and the bones came together, bone to his bone. 8: And when I beheld, lo, the sinews and the flesh came upon them, and the skin covered them above, but there was no breath in them. 9: Then said he unto me, Prophesy unto the wind, prophesy, son of man, and say to the wind, thus saith the Lord God; come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live. 10: So, I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood up upon their feet, an exceeding great army.”

The vision is about the restoration of Israel from different countries, where they were carried away captives, back to the nation of their own. Going down the memory lane, it will be recalled that the State of Israel was created by resolution 181 of United Nations General Assembly on November 29, 1947 in which 33 countries voted in favour and 10 were against. Despite the UN resolution, the vision for creation of the State of Israel was revealed many years back. As the Lord has announced the restoration, He gives the vision and the symbol of its accomplishment. The bones represent the whole house of Israel living at the time of the restoration, while the graves are the nations where they dwell. The order of the events are bringing the people out, their conversion to Christianity and, finally, they will be filled with the Spirit of God. The two sticks are the tribe of Judah and the 10 tribes of Israel that will be united into one nation. After the restoration, the nation of Israel will be strong economically and militarily. The case of the Israelites is temporal and physical; restorations are in three folds.

There is the restoration of an individual back to life after such person has died physically as witnessed in the case of Lazarus, the brother of Mary and Martha in John 11:11-15, 39-44. It says: “These things said he: and after that he saith unto them, Our friend Lazarus sleepeth; but I go, that I may awake him out of sleep. 12: Then said his disciples, Lord, if he sleeps, he shall do well. 13: Howbeit Jesus spake of his death: but they thought that he had spoken of taking of rest in sleep. 14: Then said Jesus unto them plainly, Lazarus is dead. 15: And I am glad for your sakes that I was not there, to the intent ye may believe; nevertheless let us go unto him.”

Lazarus, the brother of Mary and Martha was a friend of our Lord Jesus Christ, eventually, he died and Jesus told His disciples of his death, but that he would rise again. True to His words, he commanded at the graveside, and Lazarus was brought back to life, as buttressed in the scripture below:

“Jesus said, take ye away the stone. Martha, the sister of him that was dead, saith unto him, Lord, by this time he stinketh: for he hath been dead four days. 40: Jesus saith unto her, said I not unto thee, that, if thou wouldest believe, thou shouldest see the glory of God? 41: Then they took away the stone from the place where the dead was laid. And Jesus lifted up his eyes, and said, ‘Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me.’ 42: And I knew that thou hearest me always: but because of the people which stand by I said it, that they may believe that thou hast sent me. 43: And when he thus had spoken, he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth. 44: And he that was dead came forth, bound hand and foot with graveclothes: and his face was bound about with a napkin. Jesus saith unto them, loose him, and let him go.” This is individual physical restoration to life. For the people who believe in Christ, if their physical death is not in line with the will of God, they will be restored back to life through faithful prayers.

In the same vein, if ones’ business liquidates it could be restored through serious prayers and injection of fund into it. At the same time, one who backslides from the faith could be revived and restored through spiritual reawakening by God. There will be divine intervention in our affairs here on earth for the restoration of whatever we lost to the devil and his agents.

While we are here on earth, we are in expectation of the rapture of the saints into life and the restoration of all things and our eventual reign with our Lord Jesus Christ when He comes back in His glory. It is in the expectation of this reign that prompted the disciples of Jesus to ask in the lead scripture whether it is the time for Him to restore the Kingdom to Israel. The restoration of the Kingdom to Israel will be during the restoration of all things. The rapture will take place first and the saints who resurrect into life will be with our Lord Jesus Christ in the air. Then after the great tribulations our Lord Jesus Christ will come back in His glory with all the saints that were raptured in the first resurrection. In His arrival, the light from His body will destroy the Anti-Christ, who at that time would be sitting in the temple of Jerusalem. After the destruction of the Anti-Christ, devil, death and all evil will be thrown into the bottomless pit and finally into hell fire.

There will be restoration of all things and the New Earth and New Heaven will appear. The New Jerusalem will also appear. It is in this New Jerusalem that the saints will dwell to reign with our Lord Jesus Christ, who will sit on the throne of David to rule. This will be the fulfillment of the question the disciples asked the Lord whether it was the time to restore the Kingdom to Israel. There will be restoration of all saints to the position of rulership with our Lord Jesus Christ. At the restoration of all things, the believers and saints will reign with Jesus Christ.

However, while, we are still living on earth, we will continue to experience restoration in different phases. Whatever that was lost to the devil will be restored through our Lord Jesus Christ. First on encountering Christ and repentance, our souls in the bondage of sin will be freed and restored to life led by the Spirit of God. In Christ, if we fall sick our health will be restored through divine healing. We continue to believe and trust in the Lord and at the appointed time everything lost will be restored in Jesus’ name.