Programme: Anamnesis Prayer Meeting (Week 1_Day 2)
Date: Wednesday, 8th November 2023
Transcript Summary
1. We ought to go beyond the state of seeing meetings as a routine. We should not be like the Jews who were programmed to go thrice to Jerusalem and after a while, it became a religious activity to them. In like manner, meetings can become a social gathering for us, such that we lose the essence of what the meeting is for. When God gave the Jews the commandment to appear, there was a reason for it. It was not for roll call; there was something the Lord intended to do. When they came for those meetings, there were things the high priest would do – he would minister to the Lord, bring out blessings, bless the people of God, and many more.
2. (Exodus 34:23) “Thrice in the year shall all your men children appear before the Lord God, the God of Israel.” One of the reasons God had them appear was for a positioning they were to have in their heart. Their journey was to position their heart for God’s appearance. In other words, there is a disposition of the heart that God wants us to have as a people. This is the reason we have prayer meetings. Prayer meeting is for us to pray, to convocate and stir up one another in the place of prayer so that hearts can begin to shift, take a posture and make the movement required for appearance. There is a disposition of heart we must possess if there is going to be the appearance of the Lord unto us. Appearance is something that must be looked for.
3. Apostle Paul, from this scripture, made us see that there is a day for appearing. But we can read it and averagely think that the appearance here speaks of the second coming of the Lord. This is not so because the Lord actually appeared to the church in Thessalonians. In the church today, an average Christian sees the coming of the Lord as rapture. Rapture is an epoch event that should not leave our hearts but rapture is not particularly what God is after. God is after us interfacing with Him unto salvation – unto glory. There are things that would not happen to us as a Church until God makes certain appearances. We cannot come into glory and salvation until God appears to us. And this does not mean a vision or physical appearance.
4. To the church in Philadelphia, He said He had set before them an open door (Rev. 3:8). Jesus is the door. That means He had granted them an appearance that He did not grant to other churches; and they needed that granting of permission for certain words to be spoken to them. But it was not unto all of them that He made the appearance; those that received the appearance knew it and declared it “that the Son of God is come and hath given them an understanding” (1 Jn. 5:20). This level of understanding, which was key for entrance, would not have been ministered to them if the Lord did not come. There are doors that will never open until the Lord comes. The appearance carries an understanding which we would not have until the appearance is made to us. So the Lord’s appearance is also to bring us an understanding that is required.
5. Satan, the adversary, is a spirit and he militates against the Church not to make entrance. He and his spirits have been around for a long time, even before Adam was created, and they operate a wisdom that even Adam in his unfallen state could not outwit. Satan knew what to do to make Adam eat of the forbidden fruit. So it would only take the Lord’s appearance for us to escape some things. So the Lord has to appear to give us understanding. His appearance is to give us an understanding. “And we know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding, that we may know him that is true….” (1 Jn. 5:20). For Eternal Life, Jesus has to appear. We cannot come into Eternal life without the appearance of the Lord. What marks the sanctuary and the tabernacle are appearances.
6. If the Lord does not come or appear, we cannot cross because He has to be the door. If He does not appear in the sanctuary, then we would not find the door to enter (John 10:9) Jesus is the door we enter to connect the East. It is not any kind of man that can go through Him but one that has shifted position. So, there is a heart state we must possess. We must plead with the Lord to help us with this heart state because we cannot will it. Mercy has to be shown to us. Moses had to plead with the Lord to show Him His ways (Exodus 33:13).
7. There is a grace we need to find but we cannot find it except we find grace in His sight. This whole thing is a line up of grace. (Titus 2:11-12) All men described here is not “every” man. They are men who have come into the sanctuary. Our arrival at the sanctuary has to be by grace. It is an arrival of hearts. We would not enter physically because the sanctuary is in the realm of the spirit. It is hearts that would enter. But we cannot enter if He does not grant us grace. The entrance shows in how we live. Grace would teach us how to live; and teaching us is to make us shift the position of our hearts.
8. The heart shifts by the way we live. There is a life of sanctuary men. Men who keep the sanctuary have a way they live. How we live shows where our hearts have entered. Where our treasure is, there also our hearts will be. So if your treasure is in the sanctuary, then your heart would be in the sanctuary also. How we know that your treasure is in the sanctuary is that you have received substances of the sanctuary. The way we live determines the substances we should receive. We have three ways of how to live in the sanctuary: soberly, righteously and godly, which are menorah, table of shewbread and altar of incense accordingly (Titus 2:11-12).
9. We are in this present world but our hearts would tell where our treasures are by our manner of life. It would be seen in the way we treat our spouse. The way men in the sanctuary live with their spouses is different from the way a man in the camp lives with his wife. There are higher demands for the sanctuary man. Such has to dwell with the spouse with knowledge (1 Peter 3:7). We cannot select instructions when we enter the sanctuary. Our alignment will also be tested by how we relate with the brethren. We must relate with them with shew bread—all long-suffering. We have to eat the bread with all patience with brethren.
10. (Ephesians 4:2-3) "With all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love; [3] Endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace." These things are written to sanctuary brethren. It is written to men who have arrived at a certain place. If we do not keep this law, we would not access the grace for the next allocation. It would show in everything we would do. It would also show in our relation with spiritual authority. There is none of these things that would be waived. There is no waiver. We need to complete the course, and we have to pass it. Paul related to Timothy how he had finished his course and was waiting for the crown (2 Timothy 4:7-8).
11. The Church is waiting for rapture and not His appearance. This is because we do not understand the essence of His appearance and what it is supposed to do for us. Rapture is the last trump; there are other trumps which are an appearance of Him. There are other trumps which would be sounded before the last trump and we ought to be looking for it. If we look for rapture and not the other trumps, then we do not love His appearing. We have to love Him to want Him to manifest in our body. For Him to manifest, He has to first purge us. He has to do a work in us. He is a refiner's fire (Mal. 3:2).
12. (1 John 3:3) "And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure." This is a hope of those in the sanctuary. It is a hope we would have when we come to the sanctuary; it is not all men that have this hope. We cannot hope this hope without the substances of the faith of the sanctuary (Heb. 11:1). When we have this hope, we purify ourselves (1 John 3:3). The hope would help us to come into the level of purity we ought to attain. This hope itself is a hyssop for purifying sons of the sanctuary who are waiting for His appearing. After we have lived soberly, righteously, and godly, we still have to look for this hope. This hope is the one that has the ability to make us see the glorious appearing of the Great God and our savior Jesus Christ.
13. As we pray in this season of prayer meeting for Anamnesis, we must cry to the Lord to have enough expectations. We must pray that prayer meetings do not just become a routine. There is something we should be looking for. As we pray, we should plead with God to bless us with expectation. There is a particular “looking for” we should have; this exceeds the way we have been looking for Him. Who we are looking for is the Great God. The early church waited, they longed for this appearing and He came to them. If we understand who wants to appear then every other thing would mean nothing to us.
14. God appeared to Moses. That was an appearance to Him only; it was not for the whole of Israel. Moses knew the appearances of God he had was not God, but a cloud. For Moses to get to the place where he could look for God, it took a lot of heart shifting. He realized there was something he should look for beyond the rod God gave to him. Moses did not see the rod as something he should hold as a treasure; he sought to be shown the way, and to find grace in God's sight. God had to tell him the truth of how nobody sees His face and live. But because that was the desire of Moses, God had to find a way.
15. Moses' encounter with God changed his entire being. His physical forces likewise were not abated and his sight was not dim. Moses' body inherited glory. Even after he died, that body did not see corruption. That is how much the appearance of the Great God did for Moses in the Old Testament. We need to know who we are looking for. Looking for the appearance of the Great God is a very important matter. That is why He has to first purge, prepare and set the hearts right before appearing.
16. God also appeared to Abraham on mount Moriah. Upon God's appearance, He sealed up the sum and established the covenant for generations yet unborn. God also appeared to Job. After the appearance, Job's body that had been broken down came back together. His body did not return back to the usual, it was upgraded. This is because things are upgraded to the energy of the appearance. We must ask ourselves if we are really looking for the Great God. The appearance He wants to make to us is not like the one in the Old Testament. He wants to appear to us at the level of the Son of God; that is why it is called the blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great God and our savior, Jesus Christ. It means this is the only kind of appearance that is patented to our savior Jesus Christ. The appearance is for salvation to the uttermost.
17. We should look for Him and let our hearts shift so we can call for Him. In this season of prayer, our hearts must call for Him. If we are looking for the Lord, then we would handle things around us diligently. We should handle things, not seeing men but seeing God. In whatever we are doing, the way we handle it will show whether we are calling for Him. We have to call for Him. We should not get familiar with Anamnesis and prayer meetings. We should call for Him and He will come to us as He has promised.
Blessings!
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