The Raising Of The Priestly Kings (20).

              Job as a priest has been our preoccupation in this meditation.

              We have been talking about the gem nature of the High Priest as represented in the breastplate of Aaron. Now we move on to the 11^th stone which represents Joseph. May the Lord enlarge and flood-lit our understanding as we go on.

               Reading, Exodus,28:20: And the forth row a beryl, and an onyx, and a jasper.                              

                                                 Joseph: the Onyx-gem character.

                The eleventh stone is onyx and this represents Joseph. The story of the progenitor of this tribe of Israel is an unusual one. He was a fruit of a lasting patience. When he was born the trust and faith of his mother, Rachel, took wings and soared. Genesis 30:22: And God remembered Rachel…And she conceived and bare a son; and said, God hath taken away my reproach: and she called his name Joseph; and said, The Lord shall add me another son. This is the soaring faith of a barren woman who had been called barren:” The Lord shall add me another son.” What a trust and what faith! Joseph means adding. This is parable to mankind.

                           In creation All Things Exist Through, In And By and For Jesus Christ

               In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. This beginning is not the beginning of of Genesis 1: In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth. This beginning of John 1,1 speaks of the Eternal. Before God, who is Eternal – always IS, without beginning of days or time or end of days; He is not future, or past, but PRESENT -- created the heavens and the earth or before He stretched the compass on the face of the deep and brought those mountains and hills forth the Eternal IS. God is the first cause of all things.

               Christ said, Before Abraham, I am! That is bad English but it is the grammar of the Eternal. God, the Father concluded everything in the Word who was later to become man and be called Christ  Jesus or the Son of God. The glorified Jesus was the purposed man or dream-man God saw and made in the first man called Adam. Man was to be named “Adding,” that is as adding to Christ. God’s faith was that He would have sons through adding – to the Lord, His Son. The Amplified Version puts it more succinctly in Colosians, 1, reading from verse 15: [Now] He (Christ Jesus) is the exact likeness of the unseen God [the visible representation of the invisible]; He is the first born of all creation. For it was in Him that all things were created, in heaven and earth, things seen and unseen, whether thrones, dominions, rulers, or authority; all things were created and exist through Him [by His service, intervention] and in and for Him. And He Himself existed before all things, and in Him all things consist (cohere and held together). Then in verse 19: For it has pleased [the Father] that all divine fullness (the sum total of divine perfection, power, and attributes) should dwell in Him permanently. Comparing these thoughts in these passages,it means that just as Jesus was the visible manifestation of God, so ought man; just as it pleased the Father that in Christ should all divine fullness dwell, so ought in man. The statement that Jesus was the first born means that Jesus was the first of a kind among the human race. The purpose of this is that in all things ,He, Christ may have the preeminence among many brethren, among His own kind of race (verse 18). God’s plan was to ensure a “adding” to His Son; He being in whom all fullness should dwell, among many brethren that He may have the preeminence. For from him and through him and to him are all things (Romans 11: 36).

                                            We Are The “Addings” To Christ

 

            Rachel said,” … the Lord shall add me another son”; just as you and I are added to Jesus Christ today. God’s realisation of His faith was marred along the way; but His faith held firm concerning man. The Word had to come to the world as Son to recover the righteous rights of God, the Father. God is yet at it again today as the spoiler is not relenting in giving man tough and rough time. In the face of such devastating gales of the holocaust, wars and crazed-living of economic and racial exploitations and oppression of one  human race against the other, God is still adding to Christ Jesus, the first born. Nothing has been able to stop Him. The ‘adds’ are His priestly kings He is raising in whom is the replication of the divine fullness or the indwelling of the Godhead as in the Lord Jesus. This is an awesome hope; this is the glorious reason for living; this is the purpose of salvation. This is more fulsome than going to heaven.

                The Son is the express image of the invisible God, the splendour of His glory. The believer that have gained and are gaining Christ  also comes to that ‘add-’status, that estate of the Lord Jesus. In the beginning, all were expected to come to the glory of God, be “addings” to the Lord. But all fell short of the glory of God. But God hath set forth [His Son] to be a propitiation through faith in His blood,[ that is adding] to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past through the forbearance of God (Romans 3:25). The Lord shall add to me!

                 The Path To Glory And Gaining Heights In The Spirit: Death And Resurrection

 

                 Joseph was the one son that was, to his father Jacob, dead until he received him (Joseph) back later alive; he knew, through experience, death and resurrection. This is the pathway of victory; it is the path to gaining heights in the spirit: death and resurrection. The priests of God know the way of death and resurrection being full of the expectation of God’s visitation. Joseph, in expectation of faith told his brethren to carry his bones with them to the promised land after the Lord had visited them. This was because he believed in the testimony of God as related to them by words. It was not unlikely that Joseph was one of those that resurrected and appeared to men on the morning of resurrection. He  had to believe the testimony to become what he turned out to be. Here was a young man who for righteousness’s sake suffered imprisonment (death) rather than commit sin against God. This was a man that had to suffer slavery because he bore the testimony of God. He was frustrated and led away from the love of his father. For this kind of people, resurrection unto newer and more glorious life is real – they drift in and out of death to more glory and victories over sins and self.

                          The Priestly Gem-character Of Onyx: Complete Lost To Self

              Onyx represents Joseph. Onyx is said to be blanch colour. Blanch to me is no colour. When a liquid like palm oil is subjected to natural or artificial processes, it can lose its colour; such is blanch. It is not exactly white … .we can safely say that onyx is s precious stone that has been de-coloured; its colour has been removed; it is blanched. This denotes that character that has lost his earthly distinctions and natural advantages as expressed in some gifts; he has lost the colours that separate him from his fellows. Just as Jesus is not ashamed to call them brethren, saying, I will declare thy name unto my brethren, in the midst of the church will I sing praise unto thee (Hebrew 2: 11 – 12). This is one that can blend easily with the high and low men, though he is a man of great authority on earth. As Paul writes, these men are able to condescend to men of low estate (Romans 12: 16). James is stronger in his admonition in chapter 1, verse 9. Let the brother of low degree rejoice in that he is exalted: But the rich in that he is made low: because as the flower of the grass – note the phrase that follows – pass away.

                                       The Modern Church And Elevation Of Natural Advantages

              In the modern assemblies, there is a notable discrimination based majorly on two points: the economic and educational status. Not long ago, some local churches made their pastors go back and acquire degrees or equivalent from higher institutions or quit their ministry if they could not. We are talking of people that had become fathers with their children perhaps in tertiary institutions. The idea was to make these ministers soundly educated. This too comes off the fact that a certificate or degree defines a man. This was not true. William Branham was not ‘soundly educated,’ yet he was mightily used of God. Watchman Nee and Austin Spark went to no universities; nor was Catherine Kulman, nor E.W. Kenyon, nor Ayo Babalola or Akindayomi. Common to some of these ministers and many more was not their degree of education, but their having been with Jesus by the Holy Ghost.       

             Setting up education as a criterion for ministry is an unfortunate departure from old, tested and tried way of reliance on the Holy Spirit. Many of the old Penticostal churches thriving today on multi-billions were started by men who could only read the bible in their native tongues. Yet under the direction of the Spirit, they went very far for God. Acts 4: 8: Then Peter, filled with the Holy Ghost, said…, verse 13: Now when the they saw the boldness of Peter and John – take note of this again – and perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men, they marvelled; and – this is very important – they took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus. We shall share the vision of brother John Hicks concerning the latter-day Body of Christ; it reveals the mind of God on those He uses in this end-time. This vision was shown to him in 1961, July, 25^th

 

                            The Last Days’ Army Of The Lord In Brother John Hicks’ Vision

             John Hicks was on a great height looking down on the earth and was able to recognise many parts of the world he had travelled to. Every kindred of people, every tongue and every nation come into the purview of his roving sight. And because this was accompanied with lightening and thundering,he turned North and his eyes caught sight of a “gigantic” man-mountain that covered the whole globe – his head in the south pole while his feet reached to the north pole; and his arms stretched from sea to sea. It was evident that this giant of a figure was labouring to live for he was covered by debris from head to foot as well as some thousands of hideous little creatures. Each time he made an effort to lift his head in order to live, the creatures would run away.

            Then he succeeded in lifting one hand and then the other to the horror of the little horrible creatures who took fright and melted into the darkness of the night. Now, the giant lifted his hands in praises and stood to his feet; his hands and head were caught up into the clouds of heaven.  The clouds suddenly became beautiful silver which became rain of silver falling upon the giant. The giant began to sink into the earth and also his whole form began to melt into the earth. Out of this came liquid drops of light which, flooding the earth, turned into millions of people. These millions were standing and praising the Lord, hands lifted up.

                 A roaring thunder caught his attention again and he lifted his eyes to heaven only to behold the glory of the Lord as He stretched his hands toward the people with the liquid light flowing from His hand on them, giving them mighty anointing as they go forth in the name of the Lord. Every one had this grace, but some still backed away; they would not have anything to do with this experience. “ I saw these men and women as they went forth,” he writes, ”They were” – and let us note this testimony – “ditch diggers… they were washerwomen, they were rich men, they were poor men.” Then Brother Hicks gave testimony of how these brought about healing, replicated the act of the Lord in stretching His hand – to them –and experiencing the flowing forth of the liquid light; they also had the experiencing of being translated from one part of the earth to the other by the Spirit . “Suddenly, there was a man in Africa and in a moment he was transported by the Spirit of God, and perhaps he was in Russia, or China or America or some other place and vice-versa…, and they came through fire, and through pestilence, and through famine. Neither fire nor persecution, nothing seemed to stop them” [from Supernatural Horizons by the Happy Hunters, pages 62 - 73]. The vision is long and cannot be condensed into this meditation and we will not stay behind to analyse. Our point is that in this end-time move of the Lord’s Spirit earthly distinctions will not come to reconning; it will be simply the art and act of the Spirit.

                                    The Second Dichotomy In Church: Economic Status

      

            Then there is the second dichotomy in the church prompted by the economic status. It is natural that the more successful individuals will be more recognised in the church. These have easier accessibility to the head, the pastor. Then also there s this reproach afflicting the church of God now:  the crave to identify with the big shots in the society or communities and the world. We get so excited when the big shots like the president, the rulers and business monguls and men of outstanding achievements worship or visit our assemblies. These great men enjoy preferential welcome or appreciation in the assemblies with their specially reserved seats. No, these brethren certainly have their privileges but not in the house of God which is the pillar and ground of truth. Any one that has ascended in the spirit will be found in the onyx-gem character – decoloured, blanched. He will not be easily irritated or embarrassed by an awkward brother who is “uncultured”! culture being defined from the point of view of your clique, friends and people of your circle, usually with formal education and wealth.

                                       The Self-glorification Of Man In The Church

              Onyx is Joseph who lost all natural distinctions of princely life to become a slave and then a prisoner. In each instance, he was identified with his fellows. Jesus was not specially distinct externally from his disciples. The disciples themselves carried this tradition forward after the Lord left. Today every pastor, apostle or deacon is offended and insulted if you do not prefix their names with those tittles. I know of instance where a  bishop became offended if you had the effrontery  to have a handshake with him without bowing your head, though you were friends laughing together yesterday before he became a bishop.

            Onyx is Joseph who could not be bothered about distinctions. It is Christ’s character. He will not be defined by the external and natural acquisitions of life; he will not define his fellow saints by the external either. In the beginning of the gospel, “not many rich men were called.” In Nigerian Christianity, bishopric investiture is done if you have a certain number of members in you church; if you have a jeep or any of those expensive cars that sets you into special class in the society; if you have built a befitting house of your own; if your church is a cathedral completed with mission house or vicarage; if you have a sizable number of men of ‘calibre and caterpillar’ in your assembly. James 2: 1: My brethren have not the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory with respect of persons. Verse 8: If you fulfill the royal law according to the scriptures, Thou shall love thy neighbours as thy self, ye do well. Verse 9: But if ye have respect of persons, ye commit sin, and are convinced of the law as transgression.

           Onyx is Joseph. It speaks of them that gained spiritual heights everyday; it is complete mastery and ascendancy over pride and the glories of this world. Your pride in your brilliance and intelligence and other things are not the way of onyx. Bringing your lack into play in relationships and being preoccupied by your low degree or estate is not the way of onyx either. In spirit, a man is not regarded by his earthly achievements, glories, successful children, highest educational qualification, expensive cars or buildings and titles. Onyx pathway assays above all these; it is a path of spiritual ascendancy common to the meek.

                                       Low and High, Any One Can Be Out Of The Way Of Onyx

         Onyx is the path of death for death is unaware of all these natural-endowment-and advantage-drawn distinctions and blessings. Do you not begin to have complexes because of your not so-impressive conditions? We need to know that all of life is grace and that we are not spiritually defined by our external world, our natural advantage or lack of advantage that may or may not give us an edge in life. How strange is life! Those ‘high-up-there’ have problem keeping in the way of onyx character; those ‘way-down’ have have the problem of not defining self by the external conditions. Either way both are out of the way of onyx.

                                               The Way To Greatness Is Being Servant To All 

         Joseph is onyx. He was one who served his brethren; he was a servant. He knew the secret of ascendancy among brethren. The secret is being a servant.  One day, the disciples argued on who should be great in the kingdom of God. But Jesus, reads Mathew 20, verse 20, - note the secret – let him be your minister (servant); And whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant. Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered to but to minister (serve). In another place, the Lord washed the feet of the disciples and taught them hard lesson on the heavenly life of servant-hood. In the later days of these men, they have all crossed over to the onyx life. They were so involved in keeping the testimony of Jesus that trials, persecutions and attacks from men brought them to death’s place and resurrection supervened. They were clean-cut off from their self-consciousness of any earthly distinctions and advantages.

               Onyx-gem character serves; self-consciousness has been dealt with in his life; he is on another sphere from the natural definition of life. He has begun to see himself the way the Lord sees him. Onyx is the way of love and truth that genders to service to the Body of Christ.

                   Onyx is the way of love we have been invited to. Love is patient, kind, does not envy…Love is not self-seeking, is not easily angered and does not keep record of wrongs. Love is not proud, not boastful. Yet, the love of God has been shed aboard in our hearts for the Lord Himself is Love. Father, we lay hold on this life of God. Whatever, it will take us to come to this, whatever death need to be worked into us, whatever processes we need to go through, … we pray that You will go ahead and carry out the Divine operations in us. Let our individualism give way and let the life of onyx-gem, of complete identification with your church, being completely devoid of self-conscious distinctions rule. Thank you, our Father.

  

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.