Programme: Anamnesis 2023 (Day 2 - Evening Session)
Date: Thursday, 7th December 2023
Anamnesis is about the Lord and His agenda; it is about no one else and nothing else. It is a time of remembering the Lord – a time of eating His flesh and drinking His blood. Bread and wine are being set before us.
"In the third year of his reign, he made a feast unto all his princes and his servants; the power of Persia and Media, the nobles and princes of the provinces, being before him: [4] When he shewed the riches of his glorious kingdom and the honour of his excellent majesty many days, even an hundred and fourscore days." (Esther 1:3-4). King Ahasuerus’ kingdom was very large. His reign was from India to Ethiopia, all over 120 provinces, and he prepared a feast. The feast was for his servants, the power of Persia and Media, and the nobles and princes before him, to make a statement. Verse 4 declares the intention of the feast, which was to showcase the glory of his excellent kingdom and majesty for 180 days – about 6 months. This was a heathen king, and one might think he was just doing a jamboree. He wanted to showcase the riches of his glorious kingdom and the excellence of his majesty. This king had splendour, and the question is, "What really was his intention?" This story has birthed different theological illustrations.
King Ahasuerus must have been so wealthy that he gathered so many people for that long, and then towards the last seven days, he made a special feast.
“And when these days were expired, the king made a feast unto all the people that were present in Shushan the palace, both unto great and small, seven days, in the court of the garden of the king's palace; where were white, green, and blue, hangings, fastened with cords of fine linen and purple to silver rings and pillars of marble: the beds were of gold and silver, upon a pavement of red, and blue, and white, and black, marble. And they gave them drink in vessels of gold, (the vessels being diverse one from another,) and royal wine in abundance, according to the state of the king”. (Esther 1:5-7). There were vessels of gold in different shades and manners, and great emphasis was on the drink, not many things.
“And the drinking was according to the law; none did compel: for so the king had appointed to all the officers of his house, that they should do according to every man's pleasure”. (Esther 1:8). The focus was on the drinking, which was according to the law; the king was particular about it. So, the most abundant supply in the feast was wine. The Lord is trying to tell us He is making an abundance of wine – spirits. He is saying, “You have eaten flesh, and I will continue to give you meat. I will give you word, but I will climax at this time on this mountain and I will give you wine according to the King’s willingness." There is a climax of spirit (wine), but it would be according to the king's willingness.
“Also Vashti the queen made a feast for the women in the royal house which belonged to king Ahasuerus. On the seventh day, when the heart of the king was merry with wine, he commanded Mehuman, Biztha, Harbona, Bigtha, and Abagtha, Zethar, and Carcas, the seven chamberlains that served in the presence of Ahasuerus the king, to bring Vashti the queen before the king with the crown royal, to shew the people and the princes her beauty: for she was fair to look on.” (Esther 1:9-11). The riches of his glorious kingdom and the honour of the excellent majesty were to be endowed in the queen, but one would wonder why the king took so long to show the queen. This typifies that the work done in us by the enemy cannot take a few days to undo; it will take many years. The Lord has to keep filling us with His own wine because of the damage done to us. He wants to intoxicate us with His ways and mind and get us to a place where we can showcase beauty.
“To bring Vashti the queen before the king with the crown royal, to shew the people and the princes her beauty: for she was fair to look on.” (Esther 1:11). The queen would have the crown royal if she fulfilled the desire of the king for 180 days. As long as she did not fulfill the desire of the king for 180 days, the queen could not come out. The reason she could not come out was because her head lacked a "crown royal". You may see a physical crown on her head, but there was no crown on her soul. The queen might look beautiful outwardly, but she was not beautiful and pleasing to the king. She was supposed to come and show the people her beauty, but she lacked true beauty because she disobeyed her husband. This is why she could not be decorated with the crown ‘royal’ and ‘fairness’. This means beauty is not a physical thing; it is found inside the soul.
“But the queen Vashti refused to come at the king's commandment by his chamberlains: therefore was the king very wroth, and his anger burned in him.” (Esther 1:12). Who is a beautiful woman? What makes a woman beautiful? A beautiful woman is an obedient soul. Vashti was an outwardly beautiful woman, but she was not obedient. What makes a beautiful soul is a soul that can do the pleasure and the bidding of the King. What puts the crown royal and beauty on a soul is when the soul has learnt to stay for a long time (like the 180 days) under the wine of the King.
A soul that has learnt to stay 180 days under the wine is one who can have beauty. The intoxication of the wine is to change a man into another type of man who has died to his own will, desires and specifications. God will give us wine that will make us pass out; this is important so that when we wake up, we will obey all the bidding of His Majesty. The endpoint of taking the wine is to make us an obedient people (Heb. 5:8-9).
The essence of the wine is to raise a man who would journey to salvation and become a being who is beautiful. A beautiful soul is an obedient soul. The mannerism of the wine is not what we are familiar with; it has its own way. God must give us wisdom as we take this wine so that when instructions come, we will be able to discern that it is the Lord and not what one should work or pray against.
The wine should have turned us into another set of people. Vashti's chapter was closed because of disobedience and another chapter was opened. The paths we are excavating are the ancient paths that say, ‘‘Though You slay me, yet will I trust You’’ (Job 13:15) and “If I perish, I perish” (Esther 4:16).
The preparation of Esther to replace Vashti was for a whole year. Vashti was dethroned in the third year of the king’s reign, but Esther ascended the throne in the seventh year as she was being prepared for bigger things. The desire of the Lord is that we are converted from an ugly soul into a beautiful soul.
A beautiful soul is an obedient soul, not a soul that will say “Not so Lord!”. If it is the Lord, it is always “Yes Lord!”. This is what the Lord wants to help us achieve. As the Lord washes and cleanses us, His Spirit will work in us to live an obedient life. Obedience is not in the preaching but in the doing. The expectation of the Lord concerning our inward (soul) change is that as we continue in this path, we are going to be able to receive fresher instructions and do them. The beauty the Lord wants to reveal in us will be made possible, not just in receiving fresh instructions but in doing them.
Vashti never knew she would receive the instruction to come out to show her beauty. So all the wine she had been taking never worked out in her the obedience that would bring her to the point where she would do whatever the king asked her to do. That means she drank the wine in vain. If we can analyze and reason out the instructions of the Lord, then the Lord is not yet the King in our lives. This means if the Lord is the King in our lives, then we should be able to do anything and everything He asks us to do.
The Church is the riches of the glorious kingdom and the honour of His excellent majesty that God wants to show, but He is still working on us. If we do well, as we come from the mountain of Anamnesis, we can say boldly that God is not through with us. We are a project in God’s hands, and we are still taking wine. He is still working in us. The finished work of Christ is not finished in us. It is true that the work is finished in Christ, but it is not yet finished in us. We still have some specifications for living in our souls that must be deleted.
Until we get to the place where we do not have our own mind – to the point where it is only what the King says that is our bidding – we will not be ready for the feast and showcased as the riches of His glorious Kingdom. It is when we can do the bidding of the King that we are reflecting Him; this is when we can think the way He thinks, walk the way He walks, and our mannerisms will be the same as His. God wants to showcase a glorious Church, but we must offer ourselves for the Lord to finish His work in us. As the Lord takes us to the next level, we must yield to His dealings and leadings until we finally arrive there.
Rounding off: Reverend Kayode Oyegoke
We might not know the adverse effect of the wine that the dragon has served us. We drank various kinds of wine. The most dangerous wine is the wine of nature because it does not show signs of being tipsy.
The cup of the New Testament is a different kind of wine. It has its own intoxication which is unseen and not physical. A person might think he is normal, but he is not! Nobody on earth is normal. Men are sick, but God forgives our iniquities and heals all our diseases (Ps. 103:3). It is a wine that convinces us that natural life is normal. But we have been drinking cups to be able to recalibrate our souls and take us to another level of wine.
“And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit…” (Eph. 5:18). We must not be separated from our cup in the New Testament. When we see a man who is drunk with this world, he is convinced about a life. Such a man is persuaded about it to the extent that he can give his life for it. It shows in our priorities, and what we put value on. Naturally, we get sorrowful at failures in examinations. The adversary served a kind of spirit to people, to make them live on earth and not be awoken to reality. This wine is not the obvious one; it is a diabolic one.
In the book of Esther, people did not get drunk because it was according to law. It was a wine of the law of nature. Men generally are drunk; that is why they can invest their years in vanity. Satan has a wine he has been serving from generation to generation.
We prepare ourselves for service so that we can serve Satan. Vashti was not drinking the wine of the king; she was drinking something else. She was not aware of the season of the excellent majesty of the king. She had her own feast, so what she had could not make her submissive to obey the king’s dictates.
We must not separate ourselves from the congregational drinking that the Lord is feeding us with. We should offer prayers so that spots and wrinkles can be dealt with. Spots and wrinkles are expressions of genes. Spots are birthmarks that normal washing cannot remove. We need to drink into another gene to change that spot in our soul. This wrinkle is not the one in clothes; it is on the skin of the soul. Spots are built, just like one cannot clean the spot of the leopard because it is in his genes. We must pray to God to help us deal with these unholy genes.
We must pray that God will help us break our unholy alliance with the cup of the devil. What Satan has given to man is madness, and that is why we have to be careful with earthly things. When people are mad, they do not have feelings; they are drunk and anointed to lose their humanity. Some are turned to brute beasts because of their obsession with things.
Let us pray that the Lord will help us break these alliances with the devil. Amen.
Blessings!