Non-Negotiable Counsels of God's Kingdom - Part 22

Dearly Beloved,

It may interest you to acknowledge that as we selflessly press into the eternal counsel of the God’s will, he would cause us to come into new definitions of inspired truths.

Our generation has no excuse before heaven, not to live and bear fruits with the surge of words (great lights) that keeps proceeding out of the mouth of the father.

The following is a simple, yet elusive counsel before the church today, and it attempts to route new definitions surrounding ‘things to come’ (Jn. 16:13/Heb. 9:11) – a subject the Lord has laid unusual emphasis on in the last 6 months plus in known and unknown gatherings. The Lord be praised, because the New Testament order of Service (Obedience/Worship) as stipulated in the book of Hebrews is about to infiltrate the corporate church and the cry ‘Maranatha’ would soon be corporately generated! Amen 

Graceful reading!

Non-Negotiable Counsels of God's Kingdom - Part 22

Scriptural Text: 1John 5:20

Conversation is a lifestyle; it is that which defines how man ought to live. There is a conversation that we inherited from our earthly fathers (1Pet. 1:18), which is the standard raised on earth for men to live by. That kind of life is convenient for the  flesh because it is an earthly conversation. Although it looks so real and we are at home with it, it is actually a lie. The conversation of this present earth is too low; God did not ordain man for that kind of conversation because He made man to be a very high being.

Your conversation is what makes you. If you live by a low conversation, you will be a low being. Man is meant to be a man of the heights. At the beginning, when Satan deceived Adam, what he took from Adam was a conversation that kept him in the heights.  Satan actually fell from heaven when he rebelled against God, and was cast down to hell (Eze. 28:15-16/Jude 1:6), but he rose up from hell and came to the earth to deceive man. He saw that Adam was a living soul and had his heaven where he operated in, then Satan deceived Adam out of his state.

Having deceived Adam, Satan collected what made Adam able to occupy that heaven and Adam dropped. That was how Satan went up and replaced Adam’s air advantage. Actually, he got his wings from the disobedience of Adam and generations that followed. We are fighting to bring him down from the air (Lk. 19:13/Rev. 12:9-10) where he occupies at present because that place is a place of advantage, and actually it belongs to Adam.

Adam was not meant to remain in the air. It was only a temporary abode that he was to occupy until he would be able to partake of the fruit of the tree of life. If He had partaken of that fruit from the tree of life, he would have moved from that realm into the realm of God (the heights of God – Isa. 14:14/Eze. 1:22/26). That is where God has ordained man to operate in.

Eph 2: 4-6 But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus:

By the death and resurrection of Jesus, we have been quickened from the dead in our spirits. The Bible says that God quickened us up together with Christ, and made us to sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. The place where we are seated in our spirits is far beyond where the devil is seated right now. It is a place of dominion, and authority.  It is a place of honour and glory. That is the realm where God has called man to operate in.

There is a conversation that pertains to God’s realm, and we are meant to acquire it here on earth. It is a supernatural conversation, a kind of lifestyle that belongs to God Himself. His ways are not our ways and His thoughts are not our thoughts (Isa. 55:8-9). As high as those ways and thoughts are, they are His commandments, and the Scripture says in Isa. 2:5, ‘Oh house of Israel, come let us walk in the light of the Lord’.  

We cannot walk in the ways of the Lord except we have been TAUGHT HIS WAYS. God’s ways are so high, pure, holy and they are so different from our ways. We have been used to the way of the earth which includes the way of repaying evil for evil, but when God begins to introduce His ways, He tells you to overcome evil with good. Now that is like going uphill, and it is not easy for flesh at all, in fact it is impossible for flesh life to go up; it would die.

From 1John 5:18-19, we can see that the whole world lies in wickedness and that is what forms the earthly conversations. If we give ourselves to the conversation of the earth, then we are giving ourselves to wickedness. That is why as believers, we must be in a hurry to come out of that wicked conversation and exchange it for a higher one. We are admonished not to love the world or the things  that are in the world. Any man who loves the world, does not have the love of the Father in him because the world is contrary (enmity) to God (1John2:15-17/1John 5:20)

The only way of escape out of the wickedness that is in the world is by having an understanding of the true God and of Jesus Christ His Son. That is what brings the true conversation to us. It is not enough for people to get born again, they need to come to the knowledge of truth so as not to be bound by the wickedness that is in the world (1Tim. 2:4). We escape this wickedness only by the knowledge of the truth. Knowing truth is actually knowing God and knowing God is knowing that which man is commanded to live by.

From 1John 2:25, we can see that when we got saved, we received the gift of Eternal Life which is the substance of the true God (John 3:16). This Eternal Life is the conversation of truth, and as many as have received it in their spirits are commanded to come to the knowledge of truth, and live by it in their souls. Truth is a supernatural conversation and any man who comes into it ceases to be an ordinary man because truth is the conversation of immortality.  1Tim. 1:17, 1John 5:20

Immortality is God’s life, and that is the overcoming life. God will have to take us to that height where He is, so that we might be able to submit completely to His ways, even though they look so unnatural to a man. God is trying to push out the conversation that has caked in our souls. He wants to invade our planet with a new conversation called truth.

The opposite of wickedness is truth. God is truth, Jesus Christ is truth and the Holy Ghost is truth. Truth is their conversation. This is what makes them exalted, far above all creation, and they are calling us into their fellowship. 1John 5:20. Truth is God’s commandment; it’s not a suggestion. It is the life of the saints in Christ, and that is the conversation that God has ordained man to live by. When you consider the high standard of truth, you will discover that most of us saints are living far below it.

For us to access the true conversation, we need the knowledge of Him that is true. By that knowledge, we will be empowered to obey and submit to Him that is true. That knowledge will also enable us to beat the wickedness that is in the world. Matt. 6:10

God wants truth to dwell in our inward parts (2John:2). He would rather have that than sacrifices and offerings. That is the only thing that pleases Him. When we leave this earth, the only thing that we are leaving with is truth because it is the conversation of the world-to-come. The life we are going to live forever is the life of that truth. In the world to come, we will be ranked according to the amount of truth that we have acquired. If we fail to acquire it here on earth, we will be low fellows in the world to come. 2John:2/Psalm 51:6

Jesus Christ is the Son of the Father in truth and in love because He pleased the Father in truth (John 4:24). The kind of worship that God seeks is that which is accomplished in spirit and in truth, and this cannot be done when a soul has not come into the knowledge of the truth. 2 John:3

The spirit of a believer is truth because he has been recreated in Christ Jesus, in righteousness and true holiness, but the soul is engrafted in the world which lies in wickedness. (Jer. 17:9/Jn. 5:19). That is why the bible says that the heart of a man is desperately wicked. Why? Because the tattoo of the world is upon the soul. He has learnt the ways of the world which is wickedness therefore, God wants to train it to be a truth entity. The soul must be retrained and it will be by the knowledge of the truth. 2John:4

We are commanded to obey knowledge as it begins to come to us because in so doing, we will be purged of the wickedness that is in our souls.  Wickedness is against truth. At times, it might not look wicked. In fact it is appealing to man because it is that which the soul loves. There are spirits called ‘spiritual wickedness in high places’ and their job is to churn out principles of life, conversation contrary to the original intention of the Maker, for man to live by. (Eph. 6:12/2:2). That conversation is what the bible calls ‘the course of this world’.

Wickedness is not just an evil act, it is the nature of fallen man that makes him independent of God. This world has been crafted to be opposed to God, and that is the wickedness we are talking of. Wickedness is anything that is against God and His will. Anything that will stop man from achieving the purpose of God is wickedness.

God wants to change the direction of man’s walk (Eph. 2:10). The reason why God recreated us in Christ Jesus is so that we might register a walk in righteousness and truth

God wants to invade the universe with this conversation called truth and His intention is to raise supernatural men. One who is exposed to truth will break the natural limitations and come above men. Such will never pass away like mere men.

Phil. 3:20 confirms that what will change our vile body so that it may be fashioned like unto Christ’s glorious body is truth. What made Him glorious is TRUTH. He received and obeyed truth and He came into resurrection status with a glorious body. Truth gets you into the Spirit because truth is spiritual. If you want to see someone who is spiritual, look for someone who is submitting to truth.

Our soul that is deceitful and desperately wicked needs the introduction of truth. Truth will make change a soul from being deceitful to being true just as God is true.

Truth is the will of God, the lifestyle of heaven which must be brought to the earth, ‘Thy will be done on earth... Truth aligns a man according to the will of God. That is why when truth is introduced to a man, his love life becomes higher than when the knowledge of truth began to visit him. At such time, a man’s love is not based on natural conditions, but on the revelation of truth. When truth has arrived, you no longer see your brethren in the flesh. (2Cor. 5:16). Usually, we know our brethren after the flesh, and that makes us struggle (2John:1-3), but those who have known the truth love differently; their love is in the truth.

When a soul begins to see truth, his relationship with the brethren would not be based on their actions, but on the revelation of who they are in Christ. He would begin to see that the brethren have been joined to the Lord Jesus and that they are one spirit with Him (1Cor. 6:17); and because he also is joined to Christ Jesus, they are all one spirit.

The only thing that can bring us to this realm of loving one another fervently is truth (2Pet. 1:22), because such is the state of a soul that has been purged by truth. The brethren need to come to the knowledge of truth before they can love one another in a supernatural way. The way God loves is so supernatural that you sometimes wonder if He is not seeing iniquity? Love does not see iniquity because love covers a multitude of sin. Instead of pointing at sin, love covers it and brings grace and strength to overcome it.

The way we love now is not fervent. When you still walk in love based on compulsion, your love walk will not be fervent. What will make it fervent is truth. Truth will make you go above the natural. When God is giving you commandment, you will begin to see what is behind His commandment. You will know that He is commanding from the point of truth. God gives you commandment from the realm of truth. This is what obtains in the realm of truth.

When truth begins to visit a man, the standards of God are revealed and that is very injurious to flesh.That is why a believer can hate truth. Truth was revealed to Jesus, and He chose to love it. Heb. 1:9/Psalm 51:5/ Isa. 55:8-9

Righteousness is truth, and that is the only power that can make a soul live. Man always wants to escape when God is revealing His ways because He comes straight for man’s neck to take his life (Jn. 12:24-25/Phil. 2:13)

1John 5:20 And we know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding, that we may know him that is true, and we are in him that is true, even in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and eternal life.

Not every saint has received the understanding being spoken of here. Without this understanding, no man can serve God, because that is required for a soul to submit to truth. Obeying truth is obeying God. When Jesus was writing to the churches Rev. 2 and 3, He said that He knows their works. Their works was not referring to their career, ministry etc. Jesus was referring to the extent to which these ones were submitting to truth and  how much of the revelation of Jesus they were obeying. That is the work ordained for the soul. Eph. 2:10/Rev. 2:3/9/13/19/ 3:1/8/15)

The work God wants us to do is to submit to the revelation of truth – the understanding of the true God and His Son Jesus Christ. Anyone who has received eternal life has been absorbed into the realm of truth. The reason why we must keep on hearing truth is so that we might walk in it and become true worshippers of God in spirit and in truth.

Truth must be learnt for us to come into the knowledge of it and this learning is a supernatural learning, because truth is supernatural. Truth is God’s light which a carnal mind cannot receive because it is foolishness to him (1Cor. 2:14). Learned people are saints who have been enlightened by the true God. Just like we have different levels of learning on earth- grade six, O’Level, Bsc, HND, MSC or MA, PHD – so also there are different levels in the learning of truth.

The amount of truth you have will determine the amount of glory you carry. If you fall short of learning truth on earth and all you are able to acquire is standard six level of truth, your glory would be low in the future world. Many of us have not learnt the culture of Eternal life because we are unlearned. The same way the Lord questioned the young man who came for a feast without a garment (Matt. 22:10-13) is how a man would be a misfit if taken into the realm of truth when he has not received the knowledge of it. That knowledge is like an adornment, without which a soul will not be accepted among the fellows.

There are natural elites, when they talk, you will know that they have been adorned with a kind of glory, but God wants to adorn us with a glory that passeth not away. He wants to make us spiritual elites. What enlightens the soul is the knowledge of truth, and it is not just about being enlightened, but what that knowledge turns a man into. This kind of knowledge has power to make a man supernatural.

We are living in a time when the demand of truth is higher, and there is so much need for us to quicken our pace. Wickedness in increasing and for it not to take us, we need to become supernatural via the learning and obedience of truth. 2cor 4:17

Bless You!

VGC Bi-Monthly Fellowship

Rev. (Mrs.) Helen Oyegoke

Topic: Submitting to Truth

20^th July, 2014.

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Anamnesis (Remembering Jesus) 2014 Calling!

Dearly Beloved,

The church is in a crucial season in the calendar of heaven, a season when heaven is courting  the earth in righteousness, and God is drawing nearer to man than ever before! The many visitations of heaven are at a higher frequency, men are beginning to hear timeless sounds and romance the priestly conversations of the world to come. The Father is harping the song of the new age and souls are vibrating to that sweet  music of eternal redemption which was purchased for man by the precious blood of the Lamb. 

We are in the season of God’s Lamb, a season when He will adorn men with the illumination of the future world, for the Lamb Himself is that illumination. By the authorization of the Father, He is importing the glories of that future age into the present by shining His knowledge into the hearts of desperate seekers of the true light.

The Lord is grooming men who will receive the light of that future city (Heb. 11:10/16 & 12:22), and interpret it in this present age through obedience. By their walk, ancient paths will be re-opened; men who have hitherto been under the captivity of dragonic seductions will be re-cultured after the civilization of the Lamb, and the prince of the power of the air will be judged. The stars of heaven shall also fall (Rev. 12:9) and the sun (present light governing carnal men) shall become darkened (Rev. 6:12). By their walk, the present world order will be rolled away like a vesture (Heb. 1:12/1Pet. 3:10/Rev. 21:1) and the new order shall be unveiled from f the belly of the Father (Rev. 21:2-3/10).

In this season of the Lamb, the mystery of iniquity will be further demystified, and its laws rendered extinct.  Lambs will fill the earth, because the light of God will come upon His saints, His glory will arise upon them, and His knowledge shall fill the earth as the waters cover the sea. This is the lot of the elect, even those who have been ordained to show forth the greatness of the greater one which is the victory of a most excellent testament that overcomes the world.

To this end, there is a beckoning in the spirit. There is a call to come up to the heights and walk upon the high places of God. The voice of the Lamb which is like a great mighty trumpet is calling out to all loving enquirers saying, ‘COME UP HITHER, COME AND SEE, COME AND LET ME SHOW YOU THINGS TO COME.’

A feast has been prepared upon the mountain of the Lord, a feast of fat things and of wine on the lees, for them whose heart beat at the frequency of the new world order, whose feet are being trained to tread the high places of Zion. These are they who shall feast on the scroll (Rev. 10:9) and live out its testament like the early apostles and very few others have.

A company of men and women are arising from the earth, who will love not their life unto death, who shall follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth and who shall not be defiled with women (Rev. 14:4). Indeed it’s a glorious company and this invitation is open to all who are thirsty, whose hearts are panting after the depths of God.

We enjoin you to pray, plan and prepare to stay connected from 10th -12th of Dec. 2014 for this great event as we respond to the great call of the Lord.

See http://egfm.org/events/anamnesis2014 for more details, and please note that live audio/video broadcast available on www.egfm.org/listenlive & www.egfm.org/watchlive from 9:30am-1:30pm & 7pm to 9:30pm daily.

For further details, pls call 07045758513/08023877600/07046204575.

Bless You!

Non-Negotiable Counsels of God's Kingdom - Part 21

Dearly Beloved,

Beautiful. Simple. Enlightening. Virtuous. Yummy. Solid. Ample. Delightful. Thundering and yet Tranquil.

These are some of the weak adjectives found in the man’s dictionary that fails to qualify the aptness of the inspired utterance surrounding the following transcribed ministration, which attempts to x-ray the simplicity and elusiveness of the Kingdom.

Graceful Reading!

Non-Negotiable Counsels of God's Kingdom - Part 21

Math. 21:15-16 And when the chief priests and scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, and the children crying in the temple, and saying, Hosanna to the Son of David; they were sore displeased, And said unto him, Hearest thou what these say? And Jesus saith unto them, Yea; have ye never read, Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings thou hast perfected praise?

At Jesus’ triumphant entry into Jerusalem, the bible says that the whole city was moved and they began to sing, Hosannah to the Son of David’. Both adult and children were moved by the Spirit of prophecy and they sang to Jesus. The Pharisees witnessed these, were sore displeased and got offended. They got offended not because the entire city of Jerusalem burst into song; but because little children cried hosanna to the Son of David.

Pharisees were not ordinary men. They were students of the law and the prophets. They understood the Scriptures and they could interpret prophecy accurately. They knew that the praise of those little ones was a sign to show that the kingdom had come. It became clear that they could no longer dispute that Jesus was the Messiah whom Israel had long been expecting to come. (Psalm 8:1-2. Matt. 21:13-14)

It is clear from Nicodemus discussion with Jesus that the pharisees knew that Jesus was the Messiah . He said “We know that you are a man sent from God”. He did not say, I know (John 3:1). They could see that Jesus was ushering in a new order of service which would render the former order obsolete, and they did not want to leave the old because of the gain and profit that they were getting. They knew that Jesus was the messiah but they refused Him. They went to Jesus so he would stop the little children from what they were saying because the more those children praised that messiah, the more the kingdom arrived.

Psalm 8:2 Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast thou ordained strength because of thine enemies, that thou mightest still the enemy and the avenger.

When Jesus was on earth, He was the representation of the kingdom of God, so how did the children know that He was the Messiah? The Spirit of God came upon them and they began to praise the Messiah with prophetic spirit

The kingdom of God is for little children because of their disposition- children are lowly, little. When the bible speaks of children in relation to kingdom, it is not talking about childishness; it is talking about childlikeness. Childishness is our sin: malice, anger, fornication e.t.c, but childlikeness is our holiness: meekness, lowliness, tenderness, graciousness etc. Childlikeness is the nature upon which kingdom strength lies, and when a soul fulfills the course of conversion to a little child, such soul has come into the perfection of strength. This is a mystery and the wisdom of God meant to silence the adversary. The enemy does not understand how God will put strength in children because a child does not have strength, but God hides His strength in children, and when they begin to show forth His praise, the perfection of His strength has come upon the earth.

Jesus likens the kingdom of God to the mustard seed which is a type of a little child (Matt. 13:31). It is the least of all seeds which a man took and planted, but after a while, it became the greatest of all trees. Then the fowls of the air came and took shelter in it. That mustard seed is almost insignificant but inside it is compressed great abilities. It takes some training of the soul for the heart to be able to pick a mustard seed, stay with it and water it until it grows, because as you hold it, there will not be any proof outward.

The kingdom of God also is like that. It comes like a very little insignificant seed, so insignificant that you could throw it away if you were not discerning. It is not something too tangible so you cannot lay hold on it except you have been trained to see and hold the invisible. Man has degenerated to the extent that he can relate only with tangibilities, therefore it will take a whole lot of leading of the Spirit for a man to see something that appears so insignificant to be the kingdom because the kingdom is invisible, concealed.

Matthew 13:44 The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field.

The kingdom of God is not an outward thing; it is first inward. When it comes, it hides itself within the man and begins to do a secret work. As long as the man is holding that seed, the work is in progress, and the kingdom is spreading, taking territories within the man. When Jesus likened the kingdom to three measures of meal that a woman took and hid, He was showing us that the kingdom is packaged in such a way that it is hidden  (Matthew 13:33).

When a man becomes born again, the seed is sown into Him, hidden inside (spirit man). That seed is the kingdom,  but it must not remain buried within. It must not remain in seed form. The seed must grow to become a mighty tree taking over all the territories of the soul. It is a mystery how a small seed can produce a gigantic tree. It should not be so in human settings, but this is exactly how the kingdom should move from seed (spirit) to mighty tree (soul) and these are the secrets of the kingdom: littleness, smallness and nothingness. If a man can be trained to HANDLE that LITTLE SEED of the kingdom, such man will ENTER THE KINGDOM.

God made it so because of His enemies. In the natural, you would not look for God in such small packages. When you hear the name, God almighty, you are likely to think of one gigantic being, but He packaged himself/his things in the littleness found in a mustard seed. He is an extremely lowly and harmless being, one who could be despised.

When God is coming to a man, He comes in the form of a mustard seed; a little here and a little there. A soul needs to stay with God long enough to be able to hold Him because like the mustard seed, He is so ‘little’ that He could slip out of one’s hand; He could easily be treated with contempt by one who has not learnt to treasure Him. That is why the Bible says we should give the more earnest heed to what we have heard, lest at any time, we should let them slip (Heb. 2:1). What you despise is likely to slip from you. God did that because of His enemies.

God loves to hide Himself so that only desperate and sincere seekers would find Him. For instance, Satan would never have looked for Jesus in the manger. He must have thought that when God would come, He would come through the biggest, most glorious and most grand seed, but God chose to compress Himself in a most unexpected way, just like the mustard seed. That is the operation of the power of God. Just like the in advanced technology today, the smaller the thing is, the higher the capacity. A lot of energies are compressed in little things like chips

GOD HIDES THE KINGDOM IN LITTLE THINGS SO THAT WHEN THE ENEMY COMES LOOKING FOR SOMETHING GREAT, IT WOULD ALWAYS ELUDE HIM. Satan knew that Jesus was not an ordinary man but he did not know that He was God. He knew that Jesus was Adamic but he did not know He was the Lord God Almighty. The Bible says, ‘Had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory’ (1Cor. 2:8). Satan was an enemy and God needed to break into His territory. If He had come like God, Satan would not have killed Him ( James 2:19)

God hid Himself in a carpenter. That was a high wisdom in operation because no one would ever look for God in a carpenter. More still, Jesus came from a town where even the Jews never believed a messiah would come from. They said to one another, ‘Search the scriptures, did any prophet ever come out of Galilee?’ That was because Galilee was the least of all the cities. They were actually expecting the messiah to come a reputable place. God veils Himself whenever He is coming to do something on earth and the reason for this is that He wants to be found by only those that are DILIGENTLY LOOKING FOR HIM.

Those who will diligently look for Jesus are those who are childlike. Children have passion. They do not know how to hide their hunger. Mary of Bethany was one of such. Before Mary met Jesus, she was a prostitute and Jesus cast seven demons out of her. But after being set free, she became a passionate lover of Jesus. She was the one who broke a costly ointment and poured it on Jesus. Unashamed, she openly worshipped Jesus in the presence of many who never thought that Jesus should be worshipped, howbeit have His feet washed and wiped with her tears and hair.

John 20:15 Jesus saith unto her, Woman, why weepest thou? whom seekest thou? She, supposing him to be the gardener, saith unto him, Sir, if thou have borne him hence, tell me where thou hast laid him, and I will take him away.

After the death of Jesus, Mary went to His tomb and was weeping. The disciples had come and gone since they did not see Him. But Mary stayed there weeping. She wanted to see Him even in His dead state, and was also willing to have His dead body and that hunger was enough to pull the Lord. Can we also ‘romance’ His tomb like Mary did? There are times when it feels as though Jesus is not resurrected; when the life is still in a little mustard seed form. Can you stay and yearn for Him, even when He has not yet appeared? Mary stayed at the tomb. Even if she had seen Jesus’ corpse, there was no way she would have carried him to her house, but she had passion (John 20:10-17).

According to the account of John, she first saw two angels, and then she saw a man who looked like a gardener (John 20). She could not recognize Him, but that was the resurrected Lord at the peak of His power. At that point, He was putting on all His priestly regalia because He was about to enter the most holy place to show Himself to the Father with the blood of atonement. But because of Mary’s hunger, He had to stop and see her before appearing before the Father.

It is possible to pull the Lord. There is  a kind of passion that He cannot resist, and God loves such passion. He desires it. However, many of us do not yet know how to worship Jesus; we yet lack that childlike attitude of shamelessly expressing our love and pouring out our passions on Him. We can get very familiar with Him and decide to bottle up things, because childlike expressions of love and passion could be demeaning, but Children aren’t like that.

Children have passion and exuberance and they express it. They can jump on you and sit on your laps. God loves children who can jump on Him, kiss His face and cry to Him; He loves people like that (Matt. 26:7-13) and Mary was of such a kind. Her passion drove her into being the first person to see Jesus’ resurrected body.  She may not have been a preacher, but she was an apostle. There are some who may never stand behind the pulpit, but they will have strong encounters with the Lord, and it will never be documented.

Mary’s first encounter at the tomb was with two angels and that was to prepare her for the Lord (John 20:12). Later on, she saw a man that looked like a gardener. That was what touched me the most, how could the resurrected Lord have looked like a gardener? It would take Him revealing Himself before any one can recognize Him in such state.

Mary could not recognize Him, but when Jesus called her name, she understood that was her Master calling her. She had been used to that voice. She could use the voice to trace the person. God sends His voice first because a voice can travel farther than the person. You could be inside a place and send your voice outside. But hunger does not just settle with the voice, it goes further to seek the person. 

There are secret things that Jesus must have told her that she did not tell the other disciples. He was at the peak of His power when He called ‘Mary’ so Mary must have experienced a measure of resurrection. No one hears  that voice at that point and remains the same. The Bible says that when Mary heard that voice, she turned’ (John 20:16). It was not a physical turning. She turned from Mary to spirit to see the resurrected Lord. That voice turned her. The same thing (a turning) happened to John the beloved when he was in the Isle of Patmos (Rev. 1:9); that was the beginning of John’s journey.

She wanted to jump and cling to Him but Jesus told her not to do so (John 20:17). At that point, Mary connected with her inheritance in God; it was just one encounter. The reason why Jesus told her not to touch Him was because you are not supposed to touch the high priest when is entering the holiest of all with the blood of atonement, but Jesus waited for Mary to come. Your passions can make Him come to you. After that encounter, Jesus went to heaven and performed the sacrifice and then, His disciples saw Him. But the first encounter was Mary.

One thing about children is that they know how to cry. Mary wept because her heart ached to see her Lord and she was not ready to leave that tomb without seeing the Master. Children can express hunger so loud that they would draw the attention of their parents. There is no parent that can shut his heart to the cry of his child, but if an adult is crying, he could be ignored (Rom. 8:15). It is not easy to be hungry and stay in the place of hunger and thirst. It is only a child that can do it. A child can cry for the whole day if you do not answer him.

The children in the gospel of John cried hosanna!, It was a cry; they were not shouting. The Spirit of adoption answers to the cry of children. That Spirit of adoption comes to adopt us more every time we cry Abba Father. That cry is a call. The soul is inviting her Lord to come and the Lord does not resist such cries. We need desperate hunger for this season (Matt. 5:6), the kind that will pull God from His dimension. That is the perfection of praise. OUR HUNGER IS PRAISE; THAT IS WHERE PRAISE IS PERFECTED.

Pst. Danladi Hassan

Hunger for the Person of the Lord

VGC Lifely Stones Fellowship

22^nd June, 2014.

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