The Raising of Priestly Kings (19)

                                              The Raising 0f The Priestly Kings (19)

          From the contemplations on the priesthood of Job 1, verse 5, the Spirit of God takes us a little into what He is doing today: He has been raising a kingdom of priests – the original thought of His that engendered the raising up of the nation, Israel. He raised them that they may be a kingdom of priests. It will not be too much of a digression to share a knowledge I stumbled upon on the internet some years ago. In an Asian nation, there exists a a priestly town, strictly for the priests of a religion ;it is called the town of the priests; any other person that does not belong to that caste is an abhorrence and cannot live in that community. God has been raising His own kingdom of priests all through the ages, all over the earth. Though made of different languages, peoples, tribes and nations, it is a kingdom, nevertheless. He is gathering them to one.

             Today, there is so much noise about Israel and Palestine. One attacks the other; the other swiftly reprises. In this human show of  hatred, power and might, many of God’s people are caught, taking sides. Well, we go into all this to remind us that God has people in all nations and races – modern or ancient; technologically advanced or non-starters; economically sound or poor. God is the Lord of all; Christ is the Lord over all. Romans 11, verse16: For if the first fruit be holy, the lump is also holy: and if the root be holy so are the branches. Jesus Christ is the Vine. Israel, the first fruit and other nations are the branches thereof. Now, that is not accurate enough: the fact is that any one from the nation of Israel can be a branch; any from Palestine or any other nations can be a branch. The point: And if some branches be broken off, and thou being a wild olive tree, wert grafted in among them partakes of the root and the fatness of the olive tree (verse 17). God is grafting in all, including the original branch, Israel. This is the raising of His kingdom on earth; it is all embracing, sweeping all mankind into it. Revelation 5, verse 10: And hast made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth. This is the present ministry of the Lord Jesus.

                In this discuss, we examine the 10^th son of Jacob to see what the Lord has for us, as we probe further into the governmental qualities of the priests of God. Exodus 28, verse 20 : And  the forth row a beryl, and  an onyx, and jasper…

                                                 Zebulon: the beryl gem.

                  Zebulon was the sixth biological son of Leah for Jacob. She was a woman who was acquainted with sorrow; a type the Yorubas would designate as not having good head for a good husband. In other words, she was in this definition an unfortunate woman. She was a woman who could not have helped herself; no woman could for she was not responsible for her non-delectable looks; she did not create herself, nor did she have the power to or else she could have made herself an outstanding beau like her sister, Rachel. Her problem was that the physical attraction for Jacob was not there; the man was not ravished with her like that of Rachel. This speaks of the human conditions under the power of sin and that of the Law. Man could not recreate or save himself. Hear Paul in his representation of man: O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death? (Romans 7: 24)

            Genesis 30, verse19: And Leah conceived again, and bare Jacob the sixth son. verse 20: And Leah said, God hath endued me with good dowry; now will my husband dwell with me… and she called his name Zebulon. Zebulon means dwelling. For a husband to stay put with his wife, she must have caused him good dowry. This had always been the yearning of her heart, but she had never ‘seen of found the face of her husband on the ground.’ That means that the husband was not on common ground with her. Nor is God on common ground with man. For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God. (Romans 3: 23). But, like Leah, God, who is not only in love with man but strongly covets his (man’s) love must do everything to win his love, including dying on the cross and being made sin for him so that man may become the righteousness of God – the basis or the platform of His indwelling in man.  

      Closely associated with the Leah’s cry in Zebulon is the idea of the Lord in providing for us to be separated from our husband and be joined to him. It is matter of dwelling. It is called redemption.  One of the Greek words translated redemption is lutroo. It mean, according to Vine, to release on receipt of ransom. He redeemed us so that he could dwell in us. Of course, we were in bondage or were taken hostages to an abductor. We were married off to self-will, unrighteousness, traditions and philosophy of life and all earthly points of views. We live in the realm of death for all of the earthy is death, it is of the dust. We were in married to all of these and more because we had been taken hostages by the prince of this world. When the Lord Jesus was about to go back, he said to his disciples, The prince of this world commeth, and hath nothing in me. The Amplified Version renders it thus: For the prince (evil genius, ruler) of this world is coming. And he has no claim on Me [he has nothing in common with Me; there in nothing in Me that belongs to him, and he has no power over Me.] John 14: 30

            Of course, no man can say that. Every person born of woman is under the sway of this power. To different degrees, we have something in common with him. That intellectual hauteur is; that craze for fashion is; that love and worship of new inventions is; that anxiety to be accomplished is; that mild or explosive anger is; that acquisitive tendency is; that thrill you feel when acknowledged and praised is; that worship you give to the mundane is; that my craving to build the super-mega church that has a sitting capacity for a billion people at a time is; that my kindling warmness that suffuses my soul when I achieve a goal is. We can go on ad infinitum. Let us get this clear. The prince, this evil genius, yeah, this ruler is present in and is a part of what we have to do on earth. We hasten to add this that these things are not evils; we only state the obvious that in everything we have to handle on earth, this prince is intricately interwoven with it. Only the Lord Jesus has been able to chart a course of life through these things without being tainted by the evil genius.

            Patriotism is not a sin, but have you noticed the excess of the American pride in their nation even when they are preachers of the gospel?  There used to be an American jingoist-preacher who told us that it was bad for his country not to use her nuclear power over Vietnam; he told us that the British should not have left Angola to the ‘savages,’ and by this, he meant Africans. To me this has nothing to do with directing the hearts of people to the blessed hope of the believers who may be whites or blacks. In any case, only God can define savages. We are talking of the hiding places of the prince of this world; we are saying that he is hidden in all spheres of life including yours and my political and racial and cultural leanings. These things and more show that we are still earth-bound, we are still subjected to racial, intellectual and tribal views which may be right or wrong; it becomes nauseating when we take this to be the gospel.

          Why did God redeem us? To reconcile us to Him. For if, reads Romans 5, verse 10, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. Colosians 1: 20: And having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself… This blood of the cross is the paid ransom. To what purpose was this reconciliation? That God may dwell in and with us. This thought was behind the creation of man, and by extension, the earth. And this is the song that will close the age as Revelation 21, verses 3 and 4 put it: And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with man, and he will dwell with them, and be their God. And be their God and he will dwell with them.

          Zebulon means dwelling and is represented by the precious stone called beryl. This character in spiritual ascendancy is one who knows the Spirit of truth whom the world cannot receive…but ye know for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you (John 14: 17).  This dwelling is two pronged: He the Spirit dwells with us; He also dwells in us. This makes us the perpetual carriers of God of the universe; we log Him about in us Who has chosen to dwell not in the heaven of heavens which cannot contain Him, but in man. This is the replication of the life of God in us by His Christ through His Spirit. In this ascendancy of this gem, man wil be able to truly say that the evil genius has no place in him; the church will be able to say that the prince of this world has come and has nothing in common with me; there is nothing in me that belongs to him. This is so because there is the indwelling of God in His house, this Troop, this company that He birthed. This is beryl-gem character.

                Zebulon is beryl. Beryl is said to have a deep-sea colour. This means that this character is a man of deep depth for only the deep calleth to the deep (Psalm 42:7). Sea in scriptures means people(s), multitudes or nations. But this character is a part of accompany before God of the whole earth which is as clear as crystal. In this one, there is no iota of stain, or wrinkle or blemish; he is clearly transparent. There is absolutely no fault to hide any more. It speaks of perfect people. Revelation 4:6: And before the throne, there was a sea of glass like unto crystal.. the sea of glass of the Old Testament, placed besides the altar of brass was used by the high priests and the Levites to wash before entering the Holy Place. This is the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Spirit or as the Amplified puts it, by [the] cleansing [bath] of the new birth (regeneration) and renewing of the Holy Spirit (Titus 3: 5); the very starting point of the priestly walk.

               Zebulon is beryl. Beryl has the colour of sea-deep. It therefore types out for us the company of the over-comers. Revelation 15:2: And I see as it were a sea of glass mingled with fire: and them that hath gotten the victory over the beast, and over his image, and over his mark, and over the number of his name, stand on the sea of glass, having the harp of God. This sea is mingled with fire. It speaks of the purity that is obtained through trying by fire. This is the company of them that have been tried and have been faithful to death like their King who was faithful even unto the death of the cross; it a company of over-comers  that have been purified by fire. They overcame him, the beast, by the blood of the Lamb, by the word of their testimony and by not loving their life to the end.

             There has been so much noise in the recent time made about the number 666, the number of the name of the beast, and of certain medical-technological implant in the right arm or the forehead. The US went wild with speculations that the beast has arrived through Obama, the president of America. Who was or is or shall be the Anti-Christ? There have been vigorous debates and analysis to prove or disprove this technology as the appearance of the 666. The beryl-fem character may not have time to waste on this; he is not trying to know the day before he behaves right; he is always right with his Father and Lord. This character knows that prophecy will be fulfilled as and at when due. In fact, prophecies are being fulfilled everyday; it is not one event-fulfillment. Right now, some prophecies are being and have been fulfilled precisely according to the counsels of God in His church. In 1978, someone zeroed the end of the earth to year 2000 because, according to him, every president of the US elected in a year ending in zero was always assassinated and this had some bearings on the prediction of the end of the earth. Almost two decades into the year 2000, the world is still growing old.

           The number 666 speaks of the anointed and crowned man in his full stature as a fiercely independent person from God. This man is a man of awesome intellectual power and spiritual strength; he is fully independent of God; he calls himself master of his own fate. When an individual buys into the thought of this self-glorified man, then the number of his name is said to have been written or inscribed on the forehead or the right arm of the person. Forehead speaks of the mind. It means that our mind has been taken over by the philosophy of this anti-God man and his teachings. We work or handle things with our right hands and working according to the teachings of this man or individual or system is to have had his number inscribed in our hands. Of course, these teachings are against the righteousness of God. We are a product of what we are taught; whatever the teaching of this godless man, it is anti-righteousness and yet so cleverly presented that it is accepted world wide. Only the discerning will see through the shenanigan. Working and living in line with this life means that we have received the number or the name of the beast; it is the number of man in his absoluteness of glory, spurning the thought of God.

               It is not too long time ago when a behemoth of a country of nations introduced and lived this life; it was a foretaste of what this future and present thing hold. People were taught in that country to despise the things of God. They said something of man being  a material in motion, an advanced animal and that was all. Children were taught this from childhood. Man, the philosophy taught, is the master of his life; death is the end of man and is quickly followed by decomposition. Ther was no soul or spirit or any of those things that relate to a sovereign God – religion, all. Again, they opined that religion is the opium of the people and people felt superior to the idea of  a god or gods and righteousness  and holiness and all those divine attributes of God. All these were ridiculous to independent thinkers and brilliant people; they were embarrassing to his intelligence, this thing about God. In less than two decades, this country had caught up in scientific and technological developments with the West; and while still at this, they sent man to space. There then started the race for the space. This was a type of the society of the 666 ruler for, as Pastor James (PJ), my friend, said, this individual is a polymath and will certainly be sound in economics and all those head-churning disciples to effectively solve the problems of the world and install peace. Oh, sorry we have digressed far from our meditation.

              Sealing of the elects is not something in the future; it is an on-going thing. Saints are passing through purifying fire each day and are being sealed. When a saint refuses the unrighteous ways of his nation and sticks to the way of his Lord, he is probably going to find life difficult and unpleasant. When a saint does not bend the rule to get on in life, he will perhaps be unable to achieve his goals as easy as any others not bothered by the truth of the gospel. For example have you noticed that there a subtle teaching and assault of the national psyche today in many nations of Africa that the public embezzlers prosper while those restrained by religion suffer? Have you noticed that in these countries, if a civil servant does not accept bribe, he is ostracised and ridiculed in the society? Yes these individuals who have accepted this way of life is on the path of 666, the number of the anti-God man; and when the fullness of the man is come, these will easily blend. Today, the demarcating line between life of God and that of the righteousness of man has been blurred and not many Christians are on the side of eternal life for this, called the life of God, is able to disengage self from the ways of the evil genius, the prince of this world.

              Beryl stands for Zebulon. It is the colour of deep-sea. One other thing associated with the sea is its waves that sweep here and there; in each wave are quanta of energy that, passing through a narrow space on the water, can result to a tsunamis. In navigating through the water-waves of life, one needs the wisdom of God; this is called faith. Now, the nations are full of waves of wild and restless and fearful conditions in addition to the whims and wisdom of their rulers. Unless held by faith that assures of His dwelling in and with us, we will be easily swept off.

              In Revelation 15, the over-comers came to be what they were because they were indwelt. Zebulon is dwelling. Someone indwelt these over-comers who taught them the strategies and tactics that result in victory. They easily remain a-top of the waves. There is an inner illumination of hearts; they do not stumble. They cannot forget the costly dowry, the ransom. Even when they blunder in despair and wonder whether they can continue, there is always enough welling-up energy in their illuminated hearts to keep them going.

          Zebulon means dwelling. This character knows the secret of spiritual ascendancy. Psalm 24: 3-4: Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? Or who shall stand in his holy place?  He that hath clean hands and a pure heart, who hath not lifted his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully. Ascending to the hill of the Lord is to abide or stand in his holy place. Abide is to dwell. Psalm 15: 1: Lord who shall abide in thy tabernacle? Who shall dwell in thy holy hill? The beryl-gem character is he. Again Psalm 91: 1 He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most high shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. Here is a secret spiritual passage to the heavens, to dwelling in the secret place of the the Most High. Verse 14: Because, he hath set his love upon me… This speaks of the Lord Jesus who set his love on his Father. This is reciprocal: God dwelt in His son because the son set his love on him; we set our love on him and so He dwells in us. John 14: 23: Jesus answered and said to him, if a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him. The word abode means dwelling. “He will keep my words.” This is an art of constantly standing by faith on what God reveals in the word of God in our hearts.

            Father as one indwelt by You, we pray for more of you and more of your Spirit. Keep us going Lord until we are filled with and full of you. We pray that we may know [practically through personal experience the love of Christ, which far surpasses mere head or mental sense knowledge]. We pray that we may be thoroughly filled unto all your fullness – that we may have the richest measure of your divine presence and cause to be wholly filled and flooded with you. Thank you, our Father.   

                                                 The Raising of The Kingly Priests (18)

                      We have been dwelling on the priesthood of Job before the more specialised one of Moses’. In our meditations, we have been considering the significances of the precious stones of the breastplate of the high priest. The 9^th precious stone is amethyst.

                                                      Issachar: the amethyst-gem character

                       Reading Exodus 28; 19: the third row And a ligure, an agate and an amethyst.

                       An amethyst, according to Pliny – cited by Vine – has a colour that approaches wine, but not exactly. The word itself means not drunken. It was said to possess, says Vine, a remedial virtue against drunkenness. It is also the character of the priestly king as represented in the breastplate.

                                                        Amethyst – not drunken.

                    Amethyst means not drunken.

                  Aaron lost his two sons, Nadab and Abihu, in the same day when they had their first high priestly function before God. It was their first and last for they died in the presence of the Holy God. That first attempt would also served as their initiation into the highest level of responsibility before the Lord of glory. It was quite a drama of the highest order, but tragic. God had visibly demonstrated his divine approval of the people by causing fire to come down from his presence to consume the offerings on the altar. Everyone was still basking in the euphoria of the manifestation when Nadab and Abihu, perhaps tipsy from wine, took either of them his censer, and put fire therein, and put incense thereon, and offer a strange fire before the Lord, which he commanded them not . And there went out fire from the Lord and devoured them and they died before the Lord(Leveticus: 10: 1 -2). As earlier pointed out, this tragedy took place when the people were still partaking of the glory of the presence of the Lord. This certainly impresses it on us that we are not to do God’s work by man’s wisdom, even when we are sincere. It must be done according to specifications by the Holy Spirit. What can make us do God’s things by the wisdom of man is our being drunk with wine; it is our being too familiar with the Holy Spirit as to be able to anticipate and preempt His next actions based on our earlier experiences of Him. Yet, the Holy Spirit is dynamic and His wind-way cannot be predicted.   

                 But what makes us think that drunkenness must have been the cause of God’s anger? What is  a strange offer of fire before God? The 8^th and 9^th verse of Leveticus, chapter 10 give us a clue. And the Lord spake to Aaron, saying, Do not drink wine nor strong drink, thou, nor thy sons with thee, when thou go to the tabernacle of congregation, lest ye die… It could be that those two sons were under the influence of wine or strong drink.

                     Amethyst means not drunken. Wine represents all things that tickle the buds and the palates of our souls. It may be natural wine taken into excesses. It however goes beyond that. It is that thing that intoxicates us and adds the sinful edges of pride. It may be power, temporal  and spiritual. It may be our natural or spiritual gifts. It may not exclude our blessings even when they are from God. It may even be our ministerial callings. It may be our being riveted to the glorious but past moves of God. In fact any thing that make a man too presumptuous and familiar with God thereby knowing how to do it and still clinging to what God said yesterday which may have just been become a past tense this morning. Some renown ministers of the gospel are so drunken with the old wine of the Lord’s manifestations of himself in miracles, signs and wonders that if for any reason the wine comes in trickles or stops, they will substitute with human wisdom and ingenuity. Some are so drunken with the anointing that if God turns 180 degrees from that point, they will never know. Again, some are drunken with casting out of demons which they call the ministry of deliverance, some with making people materially rich which they say is the reason for salvation and faith in Christ; some are filled with wine of healing diseases and removing afflictions which they say no-body has any right to bear after being saved by Christ.; there is the wine of how to build mega churches which they say is the prove of the anointing; there is the wine of killing one’s enemies by prayer which they say is another degree of deliverance ministry… wine, wine and wine. Anything – experience or faith – that breeds contempt for the new thing God is doing is wine and strong drink. May we point out that the above is not an attempt to criticise or run down ministries nor are we trying to say we are putting some ministers of God right; it is a mere call for us all to learn more and more to give due preeminence to Christ and His Spirit.

             Amethyst means not drunken. The only drink we are permitted to drink all the time is the Holy Ghost. And be not drunk with wine wherein in excess; but be filled with the spirit (Ephasian 5: 18). That is the best thing to do. Even if your being filled with him intoxicates you it is for the best; you cannot misbehave in God’s presence. For example you can be so filled that you are intoxicated and you forget the things of this world. In the days of old, some young people were so filled with him that they left the pursuit of academic excellence; some girls were so drunk in the spirit that they forgot and never thought of marriage and ended up becoming what those out there call old maid. Some believers were so drunken with the Holy Spirit that they failed to make a lot of money. These and many more may be condemned today because of the actions they took. Perhaps. But, it does seem to me that they actually earned God’s commendation. God knows how to make it up for his children. I hasten to correct any wrong impression I may have created here. All the examples given here do not mean that the sign of being filled with the Spirit is to go against all natural expressions of life. Being filled does not say you should not be intellectually sound or be recluse, or be a dullard, or be an old maid, or be poor – think of it; it is not a negative reaction to everything natural.

             Amethyst means not drunken. It stands for Issachar. This gem compared with wine’s colour is part of Christ’s nature. He was filled with the Spirit. …for God giveth not the spirit by measure unto him (John 3: 34b). No one is ever so filled like Him; nor did he suffer any intoxication of any influence or any other wine or strong drink. He was so accurate, living his life per time with the Holy Spirit. This is the character the Lord works and ministers to the priestly kings he is raising today. It means we learn to walk perfectly in the Spirit; we will be so filled and drunken with him that we cannot fall for  any other strange wine. The Holy Spirit, the wine from heaven, is the delight of the Father, sent by the Son.

                                       Be Being Filled With The Spirit

            We must be filled with the Spirit. The imperative means that we may slip off if care is not taken. As a matter of fact, the command is that we should be continually filled. The literal sense of that verse is that we should be being filled. It sounds awkward in construction, but that phrase expresses the continuous idea of being filled , not once or many times,but at every moment. It is that important. This is the possibility-character the Lord is weaving into the garments of our souls.

              Amethyst represents Issachar. Reuben, the first son of the not-so-much-loved Leah, on a day returned from the field with mandrake -  a root that was believed had the virtue to make a woman conceive. The beloved Rachel wanted the roots. Leah struck a deal with her sister: “Rachel, this is for you if you allow our husband to love me today.” The deal struck and that night Leah had the husband with her and she conceived and gave birth to her fifth son. and she ululated, “this is as a result of my contract with my sister, my co-wife.” Genesis 30, verse18 continues the story: And Leah said, God hath given me my hire, because I have given my maiden to my husband: and she called his name Issachar. The Hebrew word means reward, or compensation, or wages for a work done. You see this amethyst-gem character priestly king is the reward God has been waiting for; He has been longing and He is still longing for it. What has He not done to obtain this reward! And He has been doing this because of His eternal and endless love. just as Leah spent all her days to woo the love  and trust of her husband. “…even as Christ  also loved the church and gave himself for it; that he might sanctify and cleanse it with washing of the water by the word, that he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.” (Ephasisans :5: 25) Again, in another epistle, the Holy Spirit writes, For as much as ye know that ye were no redeemed with corruptible things as  silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; but with precious blood of Christ, as a lamb without blemish and without spot (1 Peter 1: 23).

                And she called his name Issachar. Issachar means reward. This is clearly seen in God’s relation to his elect. The word translated Issachar is from the Hebrew word Sakar and occurs first in the bible at Genesis 15, verse 1:… Fear not Abram: I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward (sakar). The Elect is the Sakar of the Lord. Let us find out what the Lord meant by this statement to Abram

              Abram had recently engaged five kings in a battle, had defeated them all and retrieved his nephew Lot. He had also met and been blessed by the great personage in history whose priesthood became a pattern or an order. This personage was no other than Melchizedek. Apart from the fact that his lineage was not recorded or known, he was the first recorded to be both a king and the ‘priest of the Most High God.’ He was both a priest and and king of Salem or of peace and of righteousness. He was a Cananite and was called the king of righteousness. Abram had recently met this kind of anti-type of Christ and had been blessed of him as hinted before. Now, Abram’s feet were still on the earth; his faith still gravitated towards the earth. He still felt agitated for not having a son to inherit him. How easy to be sucked into the culture of our time! Only the Lord escaped this tradition received from our forefathers. Abram was not different from the beliefs and practices of his age. In Yoruba culture for example, a man  or woman who does not have a child is said to be accursed; he or she, says the tradition, does not have any reason for coming to the world.! Abram was passing through the clouds of depression when ‘the word of the Lord’ came to him…in a vision.

           Abram reminded God that he had not yet been blessed with a heir. What God would have Abram know was that He, God, was the exceeding reward of His elected; He was the purpose of life.. This is also echoed in a Yoruba chorus freely translated as I have got a thing greater than joy/ I have got a thing greater than joy/ he that has Jesus has everything/ he that has Jesus, it is him that has everything. When Abram walked with God knowing that he was God’s reward of an eternal labour, he soon became Abraham, father of many nations for God soon gave him Isaac. Now, that was where God wanted to have him. The journey was still far. In his later day’s non-faltered walk with God, when he had become unbound from the earth, his eyes shifted heaven-wards. He was finally weaned from the childish life of bless-me-God. He commenced looking for a city which hath foundations whose builder and maker is God. But now they desired a better country, that is an heavenly: wherefore, God is not ashamed to be called their God. The pronoun, they, refers to the people, including Abraham, who walked with God by faith.

                 There were a lot of thing the New Testament reveals to us about Abraham’s genuine experiences. For example, as he walked more with God, he had a glimpse into the days of Christ and rejoiced. Christ testifies: Abraham saw my days and he was glad. Can any one beat that – to see the great thoughts of God afar! Abraham was not brought under any intoxicating influences even when he received the miracle of the birth of Isaac. No he was not drunken with any wine; but there was always the renewing of the mind of his spirit. As one who met with God’s kingly priest called Melchizedek and who was blessed of him, he did not settle down with that experience. This gave him more impetus to seek more of God and be full of Him. This was why the voice of God keeps coming back to him in visions. If any man had reason to settle down and be intoxicated with wine of victories, Abraham was it. God gave him victory over five kings more practised in warfare than him; he had supernatural intervention in the conception and birth of his son Isaac; he discussed face to face with the Lord who went in to destroy Sodom; Lot had instruction not to look back as he escaped the destruction, but Abraham looked towards Sodom and saw the smoke of the ruin that was of the ashes of Sodom. All these and more show that though he enjoyed unwield experiences with  God, he never settled down and vegetated on them as many of us will wont to do today; nor did he become too familiar with God as to know what to do at any time. That ancient testimony of Christ is worth repeating and urgently too in our days. This is amethyst – not drunken with wine but be being filled with the Spirit.

           Issachar is amethyst. It signifies the gem-character of our High Priest who has gone ahead of us. In his earthly walk, Jesus was always in the Spirit, perfectly so. One day he visited the pool of Bethesda where he healed only one impotent man – one man in the midst of what the bible describes as ‘a great multitude of impotent folk, of blind,halt, withered, waiting for the moving of the water.’ He certainly had the anointing to heal all, but he would not be drunken with that. He would rather hear and know what the Holy Spirit would do. What attracted Him to that man only ‘which had infirmity for thirty eight years’? Could it be the longevity of the man’s health challenge? Regardless,  but the Lord acted by the impulse of the Holy Spirit and after that he left the scene. Then, another example. Peter and John, after the resurrection and ascension of the Lord, were at the Temple’s Beautiful gate when suddenly Peter turned, under anointing, to the lame man always laid there and healed him. Now that man was also there when the Lord was around and he was not healed then. This was the amethyst life of our Lord – not drunken, not intoxicated as to know more than the Spirit at any time; not drunken to act on impulse of passions and emotions.

        Issachar is amethyst. Issachar was the fifth son of Leah. The number five denotes grace. The grace of God is the greatest face ever beheld in the Word of God. Grace means the favour of God. It speaks of that ministration from the Lord that carries one through any situations of life. It starts with undeserved favour of God in salvation… It can also mean that under this influence, there is an ease of accomplishment which the English calls being fortuitous; it may be endowment of certain abilities which are inexplicable. For example the ability to make wealth or the ability to sail through difficult problems. Grace has so many facets. One of them is an oxymoron in reality: ability supplied to go through difficulties and sufferings for the reason of His special purpose. The Lord said to Paul concerning his difficulties and sufferings: My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. How can strength be made perfect in weakness? That question is for the Lord. But it is evident that no man can have understanding of this unless he has similar dealings from God. It is also clear that everyone of God’s children to kingly priesthood must, at one time or the other,come to know this statement of the Lord through experiences. These dealings of God may be, as in the case of Paul, to prevent us from being drunk with the wine of experiences of heavenly encounters, angelic or some superlative revelations from God.

        I once had an opportunity to counsel a young man who practically turned the table against me; I became the counsellee and he, the counsellor. The reason being that as he began to share his experiences of angelic encounters and those unusual visitations from God, I did not only feel intimidated but knew he was drunken with wine of his personal experiences. What needed I to do but to listen to running and splashing of wine and clinking of glass cups! As the commentary ran on I had to excuse myself. It seemed clear to me that the Lord would soon intervene and remove that wine from the young man; and this is by the way of grace-enabled-sufferings. And he will be able to sing like Paul: Most gladly therefore will I glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me (2 Corinthians 12:9 - 10).

               Amethyst is Issachar. It is the precious gem-character of the kingly priests God is raising. And hath made us kings and priests unto God and His Father; to Him be glory for ever and ever. Amen.   

                 Father, we want to thank you for your every blessing. Thank you for the former and the latter rains which you have been ministering to your church. Thank you for the feasts with which you have feted us in the recent past and the journey to the feast of Tabernacles.  Every day we are coming to this awareness that there is a need to rest assure on you, to depend on you alone and not run only with just a little of yourself you have revealed. Father we pray that we shall not be intoxicated with your gifts, your anointing, your fellowship and revelations but we shall be sober and vigilant so that the enemy will not take advantage of us. And Lord, when and if we begin to be carried away with your excess of revelations, may we obtain mercy as Paul did; may your wisdom prevail and deal with us for our safety and salvation. Thank you our Father.         

        

The RaISING Of The Kingly Priests (17)

                                  The Raising Of The Kingly Priests. (17)

                   We continue from where we left off last time. God is raising from among men a people in whom, as it is with Lord Jesus Christ, the God-head will live. God is preparing the blessed ones on the earth. He ministers and breathes  from the throne in the holy of holy  in heaven the beauty of divine character of His kingly priests.

                  In the third row of the precious stones on the breastplate of the high priest, the second stone is agate. It has the reputation of having the colour of flame; its action word is to flame or to spark. It represents Asher.

                               Agate: the gem-stone character of Asher.

                Agate is Asher. Agate means to flame or to spark. It is a flaming or sparkling gem. Which ever is used of flaming or sparkling, it has connection with fire. Flame can be interchanged with fire in a sentence and not lose its meaning. Fire judges, evaluates and tries the quality of materials of the stuff they are made of; fire tries and burns off impurities of metals and makes the true metals come out in their true eternal lustre; fire destroys when not properly handled. In reality, man needs all of his wisdom and presence of mind to handle a flaming fire. Fire is compared with the tongue by James.

           Agate is Asher. Agate is a flaming gem. Fire is the pervading influence of flame; it is the invisible agency of the physical phenomenon called flame. Flame is always associated with fire and tongue and, remarkably, with the infilling of the Holy Spirit.  Acts 2, verse 3: And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. The same effect was displayed in the burning bush of the back side of Horeb. Restless, fire is; dance, flame does. Like tongue, active; like thought, expressive. Flame like the Holy Spirit cannot be contained nor can be dictated to by man; it does its own thing, burning as long as the right material is available.

           Asher was the second son of Zilpah, Leah’s maid for Jacob. Genesis 30, verse 13: And Leah said, Happy am I, for the daughters will call me blessed: and she called his name Asher. Asher in Hebrew has many connotations. It is a primary root-word meaning to be straight, to be level, to be right, to be happy. Figuratively, it means to prosper, to be honest or to go forward. Asher means happy.  In the thought of Leah, Asher meant to be blessed; it meant to be called, by the daughters, blessed; she indicated that she was happy in her state of dwelling in an unloving home; she had been able to look away from her pathetic situations and hoped in the blessedness that came from  another realm, being called happy by the daughters. She, Leah, could not say she was blessed with good marriage. And she knew that it was not her fault that she was not such a ravishing beautiful like Rachel; nor was it her personal design that she was forced on a man that did not love her or was ever attracted by her features. But now she recognised another realm of blessedness that is not of this earth. She said, For the daughters shall call me blessed. It is an eternal echo.  Mary, when she visited her cousin Elisabeth and looked forward to the future and saw what God was about to do through her to the whole of human race, enthused: … for behold from now henceforth, all generations shall call me blessed (Luke 1: 46 - 48). Asher means happy. In fact the Amplified version adds a deepened end to it: to be envied.

                                           The Kingdom-Dynamic Antithesis of “ Happy”

                Asher is agate, the flaming-gem character. Being happy, for Leah was not for the immediate conditions of her life; it was an expression of something else: her eternal conditions. The agate person knows and appreciates the excellence of his  eternal conditions. The Lord Jesus in the Beatitude brought out this fact with a jarring poignancy. The blessed was not necessarily the one who had gained the world. James writes: Behold we count them happy which endure.(James 5: 11) It means the steadfast one is the agate-man; he is the one happy, especially if he can look away from the blessings we are familiar with and see another package known to those who can see.

                   Asher is agate. It is about a character that has been tried, purified and gained lustre and brilliance not of the earth but of the heavenly. He has grown into the Head, Jesus Christ and the earthy life has become dim and distant; he has ceased to be enamoured with the values of the world. He is a man that has ascended above it all; he is in the world but not of the world; he is unbound and therefore can soar above like eagle. To the uninitiated, he is mad; he is stupid; he is an antithesis of everything considered primary and premium by man. This is a man that has attained the eternal life of living above peer-pressure groups and that, at every stage of life. For peer-pressure lasts through out life and at every stage of human development. My peers are buying cars and I have not, that is a pressure. My peers are graduating from higher institutions and I have not, that is another pressure. My peers are marrying and no one has proposed to me, that is an interesting and recurring pressure known to many sisters. My peers have built their houses and packed in and here am I still a tenant in somebody’s house. My mates are now grandparents and I have not even married. My mates are giving their children out to marriage and o poor me my own children  are yet undergraduates. My mates have children and I have none… The gem character will be able to say contrary to all these, I am blessed for God is my exceedingly great reward. The agate man is aware of only one-way ticket to God. My pastor and brother, Reverend Busiyi Olabode once made a remark to someone: “Your own world has not arrived.” He said this because he observed that the man had been able to do without many basic things of life, including electricity supply. Now, virtually almost everybody goes through this experience in the country. What the pastor was getting at was that here was a man that believe in another existence and attempts to live in that other world , even while in this one. Does that look and sound like some pie-in-heave-by-and-by persona? But the agate-man is not! He is a man gaining heights in the spirit.

                Asher is agate. He has been refined and no longer craves the taste of the things earthy. No, he does not hate the thing earthly; but his hope, his joy and blessedness is not in them. He is a man whose sense of success has been tried and redefined by the Holy Spirit, the purifier of the human souls.

                 Asher is agate. We are reading from Amplified Version, Mathew 5: 3 – 4, pausing to comment here and there: Blessed (happy, to be envied and spiritually prosperous – with life-joy and satisfaction in God’s favour and salvation, regardless of their outward conditions) are the poor in spirit (the humble, who rate themselves insignificant) for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

               Blessed is the poor in the spirit! Is it possible for the poor to be happy on this earth? It is ironic. In the kingdom of God, the one that is poor in spirit is critically aware of his condition and presses more into divine favour and grace. As he gains spiritual stature, he becomes more aware of his inadequacies and presses more. To this kind of man belongs the kingdom of God.

              Continuing:  4, Blessed and enviably happy (with happiness produced by the experience of God’s favour and especially conditioned by the revelation of His matchless grace) are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.

             Mourn and happy – two unlikely words to be associated. But this man mourns for the state of the sinful world; he does not want to continue here. He is embarrassed by his limitations in the fruit of righteousness. He wants to break into Sonship – to manifest as the son of God. Yes, he shall come into it; he shall be comforted. For our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ: who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned into his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself. (Philipians 3: 20)

         Continuing: 5, Blessed (happy, blithesome, joyous, spiritually prosperous – with life-joy and satisfaction of God’s favour and salvation, regardless of their outward conditions) are the meek (the mild, patient, longsuffering), for they shall inherit the earth.

            How can the meek be called blessed in the cut-throat race of the world where the aggressive and selfish are the prized gift and character? In the world, the mighty and the strong inherit the earth!  Yet, such was not Jesus Christ for he was the Lamb; like a lamb dumb before his shearer, so opened not his mouth. This is the agate character – the joyous in the spirit. (Acts 8: 32)

             Continuing: 6, Blessed and fortunate and happy and spiritually prosperous (in that state in which the born-again child of God enjoys His favour and salvation) are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness (righteousness and right standing with God), for they shall be completely satisfied.

         Can righteousness satisfy the hunger and assuage the thirst of man? It is often heard, Isn’t righteousness  we will eat? Will righteousness give us lovely things of life?  Or will righteousness give us name and fame among mankind? These are the usual questions from the earth-bound individuals but not the agate-gem man for he is unbound and unconscious of all these things people call lovely.  Some ask whether moral uprightness is not enough from us to God. God’s righteousness is what God has  done  or is doing in us through His Son Jesus; it is above the best the most morally sound man on earth can offer. The seeker after the righteousness obtainable through faith in the atoning blood of the Lord Jesus shall be satisfied. He is blessed.

          Continuing: 7, Blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain mercy.

          This is contrary to the law that sustains the systems of the world. It is called the law of the survival of the fittest. Here, might is right. The weak is weeded away; the strong is tended. In an ancient Western European nation, the king wanted war-glories through plunders and battle, so he ensured the mating of strong, tall marriageable young men with equally strong and tall young women. For what purpose? To feed his military machine, his army. And this was before Mendel. In the early turn of the last century, a nation in Western Europe came up with a policy of eliminating, after its delivery,  any weak-looking baby through what it called mercy-killing; the more fanciful word being eugenic. It is so evident here that the law of the spirit of life in the Lord Jesus was stupid to the rational man. The world wants razor-blade-sharp brain, strong and mighty persons; the Lord chooses the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty of man. The world loves wisdom of its own breed; the Lord loves the fools to confound the wisdom of man. The agate-man is merciful and can appreciate the weak; the rational world wise-man sees him as stupid. On the other hand the law of sin and death, that principle of the self or the flesh, where the concept of eugenics springs from, is not less stupid to the agate-gem man. 

         Continuing: 8, Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.

        No natural man can be found here. This speaks of a man not only filled with the Holy Spirit but is be being filled. He is more in spirit than out. He is the priestly king that has so merged with the Father that no particle of unrighteous thought crosses the threshold of the thought of his heart; he has mastered the art of being perpetually in the presence of God. He sees God and what controls him is the joy of God’s presence. He lives contrary to the notion of loving God for what He gives. There was a man who because he is a civil servant is not a millionaire because he also holds the testimony of Christ; there is another who is contemptuous of his Christian brother because he does not know how ‘to pray to prosper.’  The agate-gem man has crossed the threshold of seeking personal gains and his heart is rested from evil and unrighteous scheming to arrive.

               Continuing: 9, Blessed are the peace makers for they shall be called the sons of God!

               Another contrariety in the world where you are admired for your wit at initiating war and quarrel and dominating others! Yet there heavenly admiration for the harbinger of peace, of the glad tiding and of the salvation of God. How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace… (Isaiah 52: 7). These are the reconciliators of man to God. This is priestly. Only the priest can take the hand of the sinner and put it in the hand of God and, that through the blood of the Lord Jesus, effect a reconciliation. This is the agate-gem whose main preoccupation after losing his identity to Christ is to reconcile others to Him. He is the son of God for this is the life of God himself who did not only desire reconciliation with man but also gave His life to initiate and sustain it. The sons of God or his princes on the throne with Him ensure peace. A son is every way like his father; the son of God is like God.

             Continuing: 10, Blessed are those persecuted for righteousness sake for theirs is the kingdom of God.

           Persecution is the currency of the preparatory to the kingdom of God. He that keeps the testimony of the Lord Jesus cannot escape it. But the agate-man is hardly bothered because he does not have any thing other than God to live for; he is not moved when you remove his position from him, when you relegate him; he is not embarrassed when you demean him, when you ridicule him, in fact when you threaten to kill him. I am crucified with Christ, says an agate-gem character, nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which now I live in the flesh I live by faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.

            Continuing and now taking fragments from the last chapters of the bible: Revelation, 22:14: Blessed (happy and to be envied) are those who cleanse their garments that they may have the right to (approach) the tree of life and to enter through the gate into the city.

            There are seven ‘blesseds’ in the book of Revelation. First for the man who reads, hears and keeps what is written therein; second those who die in the Lord; third, the one who keeps alert and avoids being naked; fourth, those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb; fifth, those who take part in the first resurrection; sixth, those who keep the sayings of the prophecy of the book; those who live the prophetic life.

             The agate-gem is driven by this inner consciousness. Some are happy because they marry the most personable spouse; some, because of their achievements and the vastness of their riches in the material; some yet, because of their position and authority and status and power and some, in few categories, because of their needle-sharp intelligence that has brought dazzling glory and honour. But the agate character though may be in any of these things fails to locate his happiness in any of them; he is in another realm. Sometimes, this individual cannot understand himself any more. He knows the cries and the craves of his soul, but he simply cannot pander to or tend them any more. He has passed from death to life.

             Have you met a person whose marriage seems to be a misalliance because of Christ and yet happy? Have you met a Christian childless couple and yet happy? Have you met a happy Christian claiming the joy of having Jesus and that Jesus is enough for him though he has  failed in all of life’s endeavours?  Have you met a family happy and saying it has everything in Jesus though it is poor and jobless? Have you not seen a person who the whole world denounces as needing his head examined because he is to them mad as he is everything opposite what they consider to be the reason for life and pursuit? Have you not heard the razor-sharp one declaiming that religion is the opium of the people even though they fail to realise that there is an agate man that is not religious and yet has taken this opium?

               No, the agate man is not “anti-success,” but his being happy does not depend  on any human- culture definition of success; he is driven by another culture unequal by any in this world. It is called the culture of heaven or of the Holy Spirit. Have you come across such a being? We have come across them a-plenty. Perhaps, there is a need to expatiate here to avoid confusion. Many people resolve to keep happy whatever be the tide. That is not what we are talking about. That is carelessly tuck-in part of psychology. We are talking about the agate-gem characters who are happy because of eternal things and relationship with God; we talk about the person whose heart has been reconditioned by the Holy Spirit. I will illustrate with two examples from Nigeria.

                                                       Contemporary Examples                                                                          

               Pa Elton came to Nigeria as a missionary in early 1930s, touched many lives, and was used of God in revivals and was a able to raise ministers of the gospel that are yet being mightily used of God today in this country and the world. In every place on God’s earth, you will find gospel ministers of Nigerian origin. Directly or indirectly, each has a connection somewhere with Pa Elton. Pa Elton had a daughter called Ruth who also became a preacher of the gospel. Sister Ruth remains single at close to eighty. I keep wondering why she did not go back to England and marry and return again to continue her ministry. This is a being who can keep happy only because of God. The second example has to do with another missionary, an American sister who trained as a nurse. (I will give the whole world to know the name of this sister).  She came in the last decade of 20^th century and ministered in that part of the country where the people preferred walking about naked. She ministered the gospel to them, clothed them and nursed them as well as taught them how to read and write the bible in their own language. This was after she had spent a long period learning the language herself.  In course of time, this beautiful American sister married one of the men who converted to the Lord through her ministry – you should see this blessed brother in his stark nakedness except for the hand-breadth-size kerchief below his groins. In her native country, she will be regarded, their claim to Christ notwithstanding, as mad, for, hold it, marrying a native, a pure negro! I asked myself why she did not go back to the US and marry her kind. The Lord whispered to me in my heart, “Son, she did it because of Me; she loves so.” Can you beat that? The agate man having lost all sense of personal importance will go to what man calls extreme to please God.

              Leah said, “Happy am I, for the daughters will call me blessed…” Asher means happy and is represented by the agate gem noted to flame or spark…associated with fire and its properties… like the presence of the Holy Spirit. 

              Father, we pray that you will help us to look away from the earth to see you and your glory -  Jesus who is our glory… We read this but cannot really grasp the true meaning because we have not been able to posit this King in his rightful place in our hearts. We get frustrated and disappointed when things which our souls long for pass us by. O, Father that we may see the true riches of what is called eternal life, God’s kind of life. Cause us, Lord, as we look into these things to see the true glory and apply our hearts diligently to eternal values. Thank you, our Father.

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