Declare The Acceptable Year of the Lord
By
Bishop Melvin L. Maughmer, Jr.
DEFINITION: - Acceptable means pleasing, desirable, favorable, and welcome.
Declare is to say something in an emphatic manner, to acknowledge possession of something.
OPENING: - There is a show on Television I watch called “To Catch a Smuggler” the premise of the show is to catch people that are bringing illegal substances into the country and when they pull someone coming through customs they will say to the person “Do you declare that what is ever in this bag is your property and you take ownership and responsibility of it”.
If you have ever been out of the country, you understand the customs authority. Every time my wife and I go on a cruise upon our return we must go through customs, like everybody else, and they always ask do you have anything to declare. They want to know do we have anything that we want to take possession of and be responsible for before moving forward. They want to know is there something that you didn’t have before but now you have and you must emphatically acknowledge possession of what it is before you are able to go any further, before you can enter into the country, before you can go home, before you can carry on in life you must declare.
Today I want to declare the acceptable year of the Lord. WATCH THIS: - Something that I didn’t have before that I am claiming possession of now and empathically saying it is mine before I move forward in this year.
Declare the Acceptable Year of the Lord!
PRAYER: -
SCRIPTURES:- Isaiah 61:1-8 “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me; because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound; To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn; To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he might be glorified. And they shall build the old wastes, they shall raise up the former desolations, and they shall repair the waste cities, the desolations of many generations. And strangers shall stand and feed your flocks, and the sons of the alien shall be your plowmen and your vinedressers. But ye shall be named the Priests of the Lord: men shall call you the Ministers of our God: ye shall eat the riches of the Gentiles, and in their glory shall ye boast yourselves. For your shame ye shall have double; and for confusion they shall rejoice in their portion: therefore in their land they shall possess the double: everlasting joy shall be unto them. For I the Lord love judgment, I hate robbery for burnt offering; and I will direct their work in truth, and I will make an everlasting covenant with them”.
During my time in prayer and studying this scripture kept ringing down in my spirit and especially the phrase the acceptable year of the Lord. As I began to pray and meditate upon this, God began to open my understanding to the acceptable year of the Lord. He began to show me that the acceptable year of the Lord is not a literal year perse’, but rather a space of time that is characterized by God’s grace, favor, redemption, healing, and deliverance, it is a pleasing, desirable, favorable, and welcomed space of time.
The acceptable year of the Lord literally refers to God’s restoration of His people. In our text it refers to the restoration of the Children of Israel from Babylonian captivity and how Isaiah was prophesying that God was going to restore all that they had suffered from being under the Babylonian oppression.
When we read our text of Isaiah 61we see a condition that was created because of Babylonian oppression there was broken heartedness, captivity, incarceration, mourning, grief, despair, community and social ruin, shame and disgrace, robbery and wrongdoing.
No doubt the people felt hopeless, helpless, discouraged, frustrated and lost all feelings of joy. As a matter of fact, in Psalm 137:1-4 says “By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion. We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof. For there they that carried us away captive required of us a song; and they that wasted us required of us mirth, saying, Sing us one of the songs of Zion. How shall we sing the Lord's song in a strange land”. How can you sing the praises of God when you have been afflicted, oppressed, depressed, hurt, broken, emasculated, and just done wrong. Their joy had been sapped out of them, they were in captivity in a strange land, discouraged, oppressed, afflicted they felt hopeless.
Isaiah made a declaration, remember a declaration is to say something in an emphatic manner, to acknowledge possession of something. This declaration immediately opened the door to liberation for the people who were physically, mentally, and spiritually in captivity and promised restoration when he said, “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me; because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings”.
That phrase good tidings is also good news or gospel. In Hebrew it is BESORAH (Ba-sor-a) and in Greek it is EUANGELION (U-on- gill-le-on) they both mean message, report, good news and has been interpreted as Gospel.
Isaiah declared there will be binding of the broken hearted, freedom from captivity, release from incarceration, comfort for the mourners and grievers, a garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness and despair, restoration of community and social ruin, a double portion of land for the shamed and disgraced and everlasting joy. Talk about restoration.
Some 600 years later Jesus walks into the synagogue in “Nazareth where he had been brought up: and, as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the sabbath day, and stood up for to read. And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Esaias. And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, To preach the acceptable year of the Lord. And he closed the book, and he gave it again to the minister, and sat down. And the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him. And he began to say (He began to Declare) unto them, This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears Luke 4:16-21”.
Jesus not only read the gospel He is declaring that He is the very embodiment of that Gospel. He says in John 10:10 “I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly”. Acts 17:28 says, “and in Him, we live and move and have our being”.
Jesus is letting the people that He came bringing restoration. He came to fulfill the prophecy that Isaiah prophesied 600 years earlier, He came to declare the acceptable year of the Lord.
As I began to think about that phrase The Acceptable Year of the Lord I began to look at 2023 and I added that up and it comes out to 7 - 2+0+2+3=7. The number 7 is God’s perfect number. The number 7 means completeness and perfection, complete (ness) means having all elements, lacking nothing, full, entire, and whole. Perfection is being free from flaws and defects. The number 7 is the foundation of God’s word. There are 7 days in a week and God's Sabbath is on the seventh day. The Bible, as a whole, was originally divided into seven major divisions. They are 1) the Law; 2) the Prophets; 3) the Writings, or Psalms; 4) the Gospels and Acts; 5) the General Epistles; 6) the Epistles of Paul; and 7) the book of Revelation. In the book of Hebrews, there are 7 titles to refer to Christ, they are “Heir of all things” (Hebrews 1:2), “Captain of our salvation” (2:10), “Apostle” (3:1), “Author of salvation” (5:9), “Forerunner” (6:20), “High Priest” (10:21) and the “Author and finisher of our faith” (12:2).
In the book of Revelation an found that there are 54 times 7 is mentioned in revelation 5+4=9 and the number 9 is Divine Completeness and Divine Perfection. There are seven churches, seven angels to the seven churches, seven seals, seven trumpet plagues, seven thunders and the seven last plagues. The first resurrection of the dead takes place at the seventh trumpet, completing salvation for the Church.
So, I began to say 2023 is the acceptable year of the Lord. It is the time of restoration. It is the time to get back what the devil has stolen from us.
LISTEN: - We have salvation down, we understand Acts 2:38 which says, “Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost”. We understand Romans 10:9 “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved”. That is awesome that is salvation that is the promise for the hereafter, after death.
However, Jesus said “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, To preach the acceptable year of the Lord. I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly. This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears”.
I believe He was saying not just hold on to a promise of what is to come but to enjoy restoration in the here and now. Lord, we praise you and thank you for salvation, but like David said I need you to restore unto me the JOY of my salvation.
The past few years has placed us in captivity physically, mentally, and spiritually, the whole world has been turned upside down and people have been messed up. People’s hearts have been broken, their eyes have been blinded by the god of this world, their joy has been sapped. There has been a spirit of heaviness and despair that has been weighing people down. Emotions have been bruised, relationship have suffered, families have been torn apart.
But on today I declare, I say in an emphatic manner, and acknowledge possession of, that this is the acceptable year of the Lord. This year of 2023 which adds up to 7 is characterized by God’s grace, favor, redemption, healing, and deliverance. Broken hearts will be minded. Families will be put back together. Healings will be done.
Captivity will be set free we will not be bound spiritually we will not be held back from proclaiming the wonderful name of Jesus. Restoration is finally come the Body of Christ will once again stand strong and having done all to stand. This is the year that we will hold up the blood-stained banner. This is the year that joy will come back. This is the year you will receive double for your trouble. This is the year as Joel 2:25:26 says “And I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten, the cankerworm, and the caterpiller, and the palmerworm, my great army which I sent among you. And ye shall eat in plenty, and be satisfied, and praise the name of the Lord your God, that hath dealt wondrously with you: and my people shall never be ashamed”.
You may have lost somethings, given up somethings, had somethings destroyed. People may have turned their back on you, doctors may have given you a bad report, but I dare you to declare this is the acceptable year of the Lord and say Lord restore unto me the joy of my salvation and just begin to praise God for restoration.
CLOSING: - Declare the acceptable year of the Lord is a personal responsibility. Just like going through customs at the Port Authority I take possession of and responsibility for what is ever in this bag. Well, it is your responsibility to declare this is the acceptable year of the Lord in your life and walk in the restoration.
Bishop Melvin L. Maughmer, Jr.
