Programme: Writing the Vision (September Edition)
Date: Saturday, 21st September 2024
Transcript Summary
God is bringing so much clarity to us, and this is so that it is becomes easier to cooperate with the leading of the Holy Spirit. There is help to eliminate confusion while we go through fiery trials (1 Pet. 4:12). Instead of us breaking down and sulking, we have an understanding that the Spirit of Glory rests upon us. Those are the kinds of understanding the devil wants to steal from us, but the Lord is crystalizing it before us.
“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.” (1 John 5:20). The Son of God is come, and has given us an eye to see Him who is True. All things in Acts 3:21 depict the things of God, but in this case, the adversary stole all things from us. You cannot agree to be led or restored of these things that should be yours if you are not able to see them and have the eye that can identify them. We should be more conscious and aware of the place Jesus has brought us. It is a place where there are things we need to identify; a place where there are utensils and a place of facilities.
We need to interpret these things meant for us and know they are of God. It is initiated by giving us an understanding. This does not mean one has known the True God. But it allows us to identify, recognize and be aware of the place or heaven that Jesus has brought us. We have come into a new economy by the appearance of the Son of God. In this heaven and place, there are things of the True God that we must be able to identify, these are the things that gives us the interpretation of what the life of God is in that vicinity. We must be very careful to receive that grace that Jesus is appearing to give to us which is an eye to locate those things. We walk according to how we see (Eph. 4:17).
In knowing God, we must draw near. We cannot know God from afar. The knowledge of God is to identify and become keenly closely related to His life. Every time an understanding is given, it gives us an illumination to journey close to Him who is True. This knowledge comes from our nearness to Him, and in doing that, we partake of His life. No one knows God without the revelation of the life of God. We cannot know God by hearing from the external alone. We cannot know God based on hearsay alone. The Son of God is come for us to know God. We can start the journey from hearsay, but that should cultivate a hunger for us to draw near to God.
“having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart…” (Eph. 4:18). Because of an understanding that is darkened, men were taken away from the life of God. Understanding would help us to be closer to God or go further away from God. Satan, through an understanding, made men draw away from the life of God. Anyone who does not have the life of God cannot come near to God. We receive the life of God by closeness; the closer we are, the more of God we inherit. It is difficult to partake of God from a distance.
While we hear preaching, we might still have doubts. But the moment we begin to come close to witnessing first-hand the things being said, we begin to come into more conviction and the reality of the things more than what is being said to us. Just like the Queen of Sheba had a different experience when she came closer to Solomon, she had a better experience than what she had been hearing. It is a privilege that as the Son of God is come, our platform has been heaved for knowing God.
“And the children of Israel encamped in Gilgal, and kept the passover on the fourteenth day of the month at even in the plains of Jericho. [11] And they did eat of the old corn of the land on the morrow after the passover, unleavened cakes, and parched corn in the selfsame day. [12] And the manna ceased on the morrow after they had eaten of the old corn of the land; neither had the children of Israel manna any more; but they did eat of the fruit of the land of Canaan that year.” (Josh. 5:10-12). Manna is a feeding of an understanding in the wilderness that influenced how they walked in the wilderness. There is an encounter that informed them that there is a time to change the manner of their walk because they have come into a new place they are not familiar with. It was a new concentration and sanctification. God was heaving up their understanding; they came to a new place and a new plane in heaven (Josh. 5:13-14).
Jesus has come to a place to help us see another conversation; it is a heaving up from where we used to be. When The Lord wanted to heave up Isaiah, the Lord granted him an encounter into the realm of the seraphims and he knew that he was an unclean man. He saw a different level of worship (Isai. 6:6). The core reason Jesus is come is to give us an understanding to heave up and that is a concecration.
“And the captain of the LORD's host said unto Joshua, Loose thy shoe from off thy foot; for the place whereon thou standest is holy. And Joshua did so. (Josh. 5:15). The angel here came to the earth but did not leave his heaven; he came with the understanding of the realm he was from. He told Joshua to put off his shoe because he could not continue with the understanding he had used before; he was supposed to be upgraded. A shoe is an instrument for walking; you use an understanding to walk (Eph. 2:2).
For some of us who have done Christ, we begin to understand that if we bring the understanding of Christ to this new place, we get more confused and can begin to draw back like the Hebrew church. We must put off our old shoes. There is a need for us to upgrade our understanding. We must not draw back from understanding. It is always about how we see. We have not walked this way before; we must not pretend/presume that we know the True God. It has to be in the appearance of Jesus to give you the illumination that you may now obey the instruction on how to break and cross Jericho.
We should be expecting this and it is a blessing; we should expect an upgrade. The angel told Moses that the place where he was standing was a holy ground. That means that the place which he had come is more sanctified than where he was coming from, and he needed to brace himself and become more conscious of the next instruction on how to live in this terrain.
The Lord said “see I have given...” (Josh. 6:1-2). It is the language of this realm. The Lord has already given this understanding, but like Obadiah, we would then have to possess our possession. Before time began, God has identified us as citizens of the highest heaven. Jesus has gone to prepare a place for us. There is a whole lot of responsibility we need to cooperate with in order to receive what has been given to us. No matter the language of everlasting and Eternal Life, be assured that it is given to you. All you need to do is align yourself with the instruction of His plane so that you may have it.
There is a place you get to in God that the things you have known previously and enjoyed about God can turn to become unbelief. If care is not taken, by the time the words of everlasting come, your knowledge of Christ can become a limitation such that if you are not open, Christ may become an unbelief to you. What the Jews experienced in the Old Testament were from God and not from Satan; but when Jesus came in the flesh, what they had as experiences, encounters, miracles, signs and wonders, became a hindrance to them. When it came to putting off the old shoe, it became a sin, an offense, a stumbling block. We must be careful because we have not known God as we ought to do. This place we are coming should not be a place we are familiar with. Moses dropped the rod and the next person who took the rod was instructed differently on how Jordan should be crossed. He gave them instructions they had not received before.
“And the LORD said unto Joshua, This day will I begin to magnify thee in the sight of all Israel, that they may know that, as I was with Moses, so I will be with thee. [8] And thou shalt command the priests that bear the ark of the covenant, saying, When ye are come to the brink of the water of Jordan, ye shall stand still in Jordan. [13] And it shall come to pass, as soon as the soles of the feet of the priests that bear the ark of the LORD, the Lord of all the earth, shall rest in the waters of Jordan, that the waters of Jordan shall be cut off from the waters that come down from above; and they shall stand upon an heap.” (Josh. 3:7-8, 13). We must trust God to discern the instrument(s) God will use to communicate the life. God is appearing to us in the person of these gifts. The whole children of Israel did not hear the instruction except Joshua but they did not argue with him. Anyone who failed to obey the leading of Joshua would not have been able to have access to the promised land, though it had been given to him.
One of the greatest sins of this day is unbelief. The Israelites had to believe the person of Joshua. We must not be tempted to disbelieve the servant of God placed over us; the Lord has set over us a Joshua, and we must discern Him. There was a way the Lord commanded Joshua to instruct the people for the wall of Jericho to come down flat (Josh. 6:1-5). They might have considered it as foolish and refuse to shout, and they would not have possessed the land. Likewise, we must be careful, aware and observant to obey the instructions that would be coming in this season because those things may not make sense. We should know that the foolishness of God is wiser than men.
The manna ceased; the Angel that brought them to the brink of Jericho is different from the angel that brought them to the wilderness. Joshua understood the manner of the angel that led them in the wilderness otherwise, he would not have asked this angel, “Who are you? (Josh. 5:13). Their blessings, provisions, coverings and shoes were an operation of the meal of a particular heaven. In this allocation, both your spiritual and natural will be according to the operation and dealing of everlasting life.
Blessings!