Day 11: Make the Thief Give It Back
"Yet when he is found, he must restore sevenfold; he may have to give up all the substance of his house." — Proverbs 6:31
A Conversation at Four in the Morning
In November 1994, in Costa Rica, the Lord woke Daniel at about four in the morning and told him to get his Bible and read John 10:10.
"Lord, I don't need to get my Bible," he complained from a comfortable bed. "I can quote that verse from memory."
"O.K., hot shot, then quote it."
He could not remember a word. He got up in a hurry.
"The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly." (John 10:10)
"Who is the thief?" "Satan." "That's correct. Now turn to Luke 10:19."
"Behold, I give you the authority to trample on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you."
"Who is the enemy?" "Satan." "To whom did I give authority over Satan?" "To Your disciples." "And who are My disciples?" "The original twelve — but all true Christians today as well." "Exactly."
Then Romans 8:16-17: "The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs; heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ."
The Lord's comment on that verse was blunt: He is tired of His children acting like whipped puppies.
Then Proverbs 6:30-31.
"People do not despise a thief if he steals to satisfy himself when he is starving." "Who is the thief?" "Satan." "Is Satan starving?" "No, certainly not." "Then read the next verse."
"Yet when he is found, he must restore sevenfold; he may have to give up all the substance of his house."
"Who is the thief?" "Satan! Lord, You have asked me so many times. I know Satan is the thief!"
"Then why don't you start acting like you know it? This is the trouble with My people. Satan steals from them, and they come crying to Me. They want Me to replace what Satan stole. I didn't steal from them. I never steal from anybody. But I get all the blame — and worse, My people expect Me to replace what Satan took."
"I sent My Son to earth to die so that you would have authority over Satan. Jesus told you He gave you all authority over him. My servants who wrote the Bible repeatedly told you that you are a joint heir with My Son. You are in a position of rulership over Satan. You keep telling Me you know Satan is the thief. Now the thief has been found out — or so you say. Now rise up and command the thief to return to you sevenfold everything he has stolen from you."
His wife woke that morning to the sound of her husband's voice, commanding the thief in no uncertain terms to give back everything he had taken.
Why This Is Not Presumption
Follow the thread from the beginning and the logic holds.
Dominion was the original assignment. "Let Us make man in Our image... let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth" (Genesis 1:26). Adam and Eve sinned and handed that dominion to Satan — but even as God pronounced judgment, He promised a Messiah who would take it back.
David saw it clearly. "You have made him to have dominion over the works of Your hands; You have put all things under his feet" (Psalm 8:6). Satan is a created being. He is part of the works of God's hands. We are to have dominion over him.
Jesus, the last Adam, recovered it. "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth" (Matthew 28:18). What man could never do, God did for us.
And then He handed it on. "Behold, I give you the authority... over all the power of the enemy" (Luke 10:19). "In My name they will cast out demons" (Mark 16:17).
And made us more than soldiers. "To Him who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood, and has made us kings and priests to His God and Father" (Revelation 1:6). "But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation" (1 Peter 2:9). "If we endure, we shall also reign with Him" (2 Timothy 2:12).
Paul says the whole point of the church's existence includes this: "to the intent that now the manifold wisdom of God might be made known by the church to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places" (Ephesians 3:10).
We are being taught to reign — here, now, in training.
And Scripture says God-ordained authority exists to restrain evil: "For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to evil" (Romans 13:3).
A king who cannot control the thief in his own land is a very poor king. If we never rule over the thief, in what sense are we kings at all?
First, Check Who Actually Took It
Before you command anything back, ask an honest question about each loss: Did the thief steal it — or did I hand it to him?
The most common way we grant the thief legal right to steal is through our own sin, and the most overlooked category is not lust or greed. It is laziness and lack of discipline.
"Cursed is the ground for your sake; in toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life." (Genesis 3:17)
Work is not a curse; it is the terms of life after Eden, and God attached blessing to it. Paul was uncompromising:
"Nor did we eat anyone's bread free of charge, but worked with labor and toil night and day... For even when we were with you, we commanded you this: If anyone will not work, neither shall he eat." (2 Thessalonians 3:8, 10)
Note the careful wording — will not, not cannot. Scripture is emphatic that those genuinely unable to work must be cared for, and it lays that duty squarely on the church: "Honor widows who are really widows... If any believing man or woman has widows, let them relieve them, and do not let the church be burdened" (1 Timothy 5:3, 16). Compassion is commanded. What is condemned is the refusal to labor when labor is possible.
And Jesus tied faithfulness in small things directly to authority over large ones:
"He who is faithful in what is least is faithful also in much... If you have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches?" (Luke 16:10-11)
"Well done, good and faithful servant; you were faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things." (Matthew 25:21)
And in the same parable, the man who buried his talent is called "you wicked and lazy servant" (Matthew 25:26).
So examine yourself honestly. Have you shown up late repeatedly? Done half the job? Quit position after position chasing something better? Fought with coworkers, traded in gossip, nursed jealousy at work?
"For where envy and self-seeking exist, confusion and every evil thing are there." (James 3:16)
"And whatever you do, do it heartily, as to the Lord and not to men." (Colossians 3:23)
Laziness is not limited to employment. We are lazy about the gifts God gave us. "Stir up the gift of God which is in you" (2 Timothy 1:6). Many people have failed in the ministry God assigned them purely through lack of self-discipline. The Spirit gives gifts; maintaining them is work.
"Because of laziness the building decays, and through idleness of hands the house leaks." (Ecclesiastes 10:18)
We are the building of God. Where we are idle, the roof leaks — and the thief has legal right to set up a stronghold and help himself.
Put your own house in order first. Then you have every right to demand restitution.
What It Looks Like When You Do
The electric pole. In January 1995, days before flying to Mexico City, an ice storm hit Arkansas — forty-eight hours of freezing rain. The power failed. Living far out in the country on well water, no electricity meant no lights, no heat, and no water. Two elderly women lived on their property and could not be left that way. Walking the twenty-five acres to find the break, Daniel found that a pine branch had come down across the main line — and the entire pole lay smashed in pieces on the ground, as though it had been made of glass.
The electric company manager shook his head: nine thousand homes without power, a downed pole is a bigger job, at least a week. And all the equipment on that pole was the owner's responsibility to replace before they would restore service — over a thousand dollars they did not have.
He came home discouraged and told his wife she would have to go to Mexico without him.
"Oh no, I'm sure that's not God's will."
Lying on the couch fuming, he heard the Lord ask: "Who stole your electricity?"
He sat up with a jerk. A sound wooden pole does not shear off at the base and shatter. Normally the wire breaks, not the pole. This was not weather. This was theft — a targeted attempt to stop a trip.
He walked back down to the wreckage and said out loud: "Satan! In the name of Jesus Christ my Lord, I command you to return our electricity and our electrical equipment to us today! You stole it, so you return it! I am not going to pay for this because you stole it. I am commanding you to return it, and you will do so this very day!"
Two hours later, two trucks came down the road towing a brand-new pole. Two crews installed it, helped repair all the damaged equipment, and had the power on within an hour.
He asked the foreman how they had come. "I really don't know. We had no plans to come this way at all — certainly not to replace a pole. I got a call on my truck radio telling me a crew was on the way with a new pole and that I was to stop what I was doing and get over here."
After the trip, he thanked the manager for sending the crews out so fast. The manager looked puzzled: "That's a strange thing. I never made that call. I have never been able to find out who did."
In Mexico, over three hundred and fifty teenagers gave their lives to Christ at a single youth rally. That is why the pole came down.
The ten dollars. A year later, traveling between Panama and Costa Rica, two young people from a church group were cheated out of ten dollars by a shopkeeper in the strip of stores between the two customs posts. They confronted him; he threw them out.
Standing on the sidewalk, they remembered what they had been taught. They took authority over the thief and, in the name of Jesus, commanded him to return what had been stolen through that shop owner. Then they walked back to the bus.
As the bus waited at Costa Rican customs, a woman came running down the street and climbed aboard, breathless. She was the shopkeeper's wife. She returned the ten dollars with an apology.
Point to Ponder
God never stole from you. Stop asking Him to replace what someone else took — and go take it back.
Verse to Remember
"The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly." — John 10:10
Question to Consider
What has been taken from me — and have I ever once addressed the thief about it?
Today's Practice
Step one: make the inventory. Write down what has been stolen from you. Health. Years. Finances. A marriage. Relationships with your children. Joy. A calling. Peace of mind. Reputation. Time.
Step two: sort it honestly. Beside each item, mark it: stolen, or surrendered. Did the thief take it, or did I hand him legal right to it through my own sin, laziness, or neglect?
Be ruthless here. This step is what makes the next one work.
Step three: close the doors you opened. For everything marked surrendered: confess it specifically. Repent. Ask God's forgiveness and cleansing through the blood of Jesus. Where restitution or a change of behavior is required, commit to it today — not vaguely, but with a first concrete action.
If laziness or lack of discipline is on that list, take a first step of faith today. Take the job, however humble. Show up early. Finish the task. Stir up the gift you have let go dormant.
Step four: command the thief. Standing, out loud, with authority:
"In the name of Jesus Christ my Lord, I am a joint heir with Christ, and I take my authority over you. You are the thief. You have stolen ______ from me. I command you to return it to me sevenfold, according to the Word of God. You will not keep what you took. Return it, in the name of Jesus Christ."
Then thank God, out loud, before you see anything.
Prayer
Father, I have spent years crying to You about things You never took. I have blamed You for losses that a thief carried off while I watched, and I have asked You to replace what You gave me authority to recover.
Forgive me for that. And forgive me for the places where I opened the door myself — through laziness, through carelessness, through gifts I let rust, through work I did poorly, through discipline I never developed. I repent. I will put my house in order.
And then, Father, I take my stand as Your child and a joint heir with Your Son. I am not a whipped puppy. You have made me a king and a priest, and You have put the thief under my feet.
Teach me to reign the way You reign — in righteousness first, then in power. In the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
Day 11 of 12 — You are a joint heir with Christ. Start acting like it.