PARTAKE OF THE AFFLICTION OF THE GOSPEL

How readest thou?

“PARTAKE OF THE AFFLICTION OF THE GOSPEL”

2 Tim 1:8 Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner: but be thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel according to the power of God; 9 Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began.

There is distant consciousness of eternity in the heart of all men. There is this natural impulsive tendency towards a high-up existence. But the problem seems to be that much as flashes of or the momentary dawning of this reality tends to induce  a sense of peace and satisfaction in us, this feeling, however,  is rather short-lived each time, as we are soon plunged in at the deep end of fear and anxiety. No sooner do we think we have reached satisfaction than there is a feeling of hunger and emptiness deep within us.

This natural, or better still, this spontaneous urge, which keeps on nagging man, coming on and off intermittently,  is nothing but the light of God within all men called “Eternity.” This is what the scriptures have to say about this truth:

Eccl 3:11-12 He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end.  

It is the chained and trapped soul of man in time and space and in the world of appearances that wants out. It is the light of God which has been covered over with a thick dark blanket of ignorance and rebellion of the natural and carnal reasoning of man.

The carnal reasoning and perception of man is the product of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The tree of the knowledge of good and evil is simply the thought that man knows and has to find solutions to problems. Don’t you realize that this is what Adam did in the Garden? He was not meant to figure things out because, in that perfect state, all was in order. The only task he had was to maintain that state of affairs as God had already created. Let’s read it all together:

Gen 2:15-16 The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. 16 And the Lord God commanded the man… 

Note that in the mind and language of God work does not mean the result of force over distance multiplied by time, as we perceive it in our natural world. It simply meant for Adam to be vigilant and to ensure that that Spiritual state did not alter. This we know that he failed to do anyway.

You will not fail to note either that the first time Adam ever worked was when he went and plucked up fig leaves, sewed them together for covering. Let’s read it together:

Gen 3:7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.  

Note also that this labour action of Adam’s had been proceeded by a knowing or a consciousness. Brethren, this is the beginning of the world!  Gaining another form of consciousness other than that of God who fills all and all. This consciousness says that you are God and you and now you see and you know so take control and solve the problem. So we see and understand that when Jesus said before Abraham was, I Am, not only was he saying that his existence predated the fall, which we now know by the Spirit to be the world, but that  our existence also predate the beginning of the world. It is therefore clear that the world in the language of the Spirit is not a cosmic reality, but a state of spiritual mind or consciousness.

However, this light, called the Spirit of God or the breath of God, has always been there in man, because when the “world” intervened on the Spirit, it was only a covering not an extinguishing or an annihilation. Practically, the Eden garden state of man was covered over with human reasoning and actions called the wisdom of men other words denoted as thorns and thistles. Consequently, we see that when God said, “let there be light,” he was addressing the darkness that came hovering over and darkened the mind of man so that this darkness would be dispelled and the light, which was already in man would pop up once again.

From this understanding we are beginning to comprehend that unless the voice of the living God, in other words the breath of life, thunders from the light realm of heaven and quickens our mortal perception, we will keep groping about in the dark, trapped in the world. Instead, when this light dawns on us, the world comes to an end on us.

The end product of the desperate kicks of the trapped soul wanting out is the monster called religion. Religion is the fruit of the desperate efforts of man. Religion is man’s innumerable inventions to link up to God, to once more arise and shine as it used to be before; to link up to  his inseparable maker. It’s man’s attempt to reach out of the pit or grave to which he’s joined in the fall.

Religion takes diverse forms and shapes in its manifestation:  it shows up in the setting of human rules by which we establish things that are allowed and not allowed to be done; rituals which involve making particular gestures and praying actions to a divinity outside man; ways, forms and times of praying in communication to God. Other manifestations are in the form of the use of Sacred books, the observation of sacred holidays and the reverence of holy temples and sacred places;  the holding and promotion of a distorted idea of life after death;  the holding in high esteem of certain group of people and myths, all stemming from a shadowed notion of the divine and true God, the father or our Lord Jesus Christ. Cultures and moralistic ideas and all the seemingly high sounding, well settled and popularly accepted ideas of men are churned out of this debased spiritual state of the mind of men.

This is the order of all men. This is the common-place of all humanity under this thick blanket covering of spiritual ignorance. Out of this men build churches and religious platforms. They crisscross the globe in the name of global evangelization and missionary works. But, as we have already highlighted, this state is called death. In that dead condition men are blind, dead and oblivious to the life eternal lying and abounding in the depth of their innermost being. For that matter, all they plan and project is dead. All they say is dead-man talk stemming from grave.

 There is a vivid prophetic and mind-blowing picture of this in the gospel. Let’s read it together in the book of Luke:

Luke 5:1-7  One day as Jesus was standing by the Lake of Gennesaret, with the people crowding around him and listening to the word of God, 2 he saw at the water's edge two boats, left there by the fishermen, who were washing their nets. 3 He got into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, and asked him to put out a little from shore. Then he sat down and taught the people from the boat. 4 When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, "Put out into deep water, and let down the nets for a catch." 5 Simon answered, "Master, we've worked hard all night and haven't caught anything. But because you say so, I will let down the nets." 6 When they had done so, they caught such a large number of fish that their nets began to break. 7 So they signaled their partners in the other boat to come and help them, and they came and filled both boats so full that they began to sink…

The account above has it that the presence and activities of brother Jesus, the light of the world, the rest of the soul of all men from their night-time toil, was around the shore of the lake town called Gennesaret, near Capernaum where Jesus had transferred his ministry after he’d been rejected in Nazareth, where he had grown up. There were people crowding around him and listening to the word of God. If this is the picture the bible paints of the scenario then it is questionable that from the fame of what Jesus was doing, the focal point on which all interests were centered at that time, there could be anyone within the vicinity who remained non attracted  to the scene. All were there listening to the voice of life, yet, there were Peter and his fishing team who could not be bothered by the activities of the “Day.” They were consumed by the disappointment and failure of their night activity. You see, in the “Day” we are supposed to see and hear and be illumed with the light of life. At night, instead, we toil, labour and despair. This was the case of Peter and his team. They had hoped to be productive at night, but it had been a fiasco. Yet they were busy washing their nets for the next night fishing trip. But how do we expect to be productive at night when in fact we are heavily drunk deeply asleep at nighttime, losing every spiritual consciousness? Let’s read what brother Paul has to say about it:

1 Thess 5:7-9 For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk, get drunk at night. 8 But since we belong to the day, let us be self-controlled, putting on faith and love as a breastplate, and the hope of salvation as a helmet.  

By the way, know that this scenario involving Peter and his team was a prophetic one meant a teach us a spiritual lesson. 

The thing is, we are the very embodiment of the living God, yet we can’t be still enough and know that we - “I” – now watch this out, because this is the actual prophetic designation for the second personal singular pronoun “you” when the Spirit of God is talking as the first person singular- am God”. So, in actual fact our true perception of the declaration above is, “ be still and know that you are God! If you don’t understand this then tell me how else you’ll understand the Spiritual communication of God to you.

 

The problem is that we have been set up and triggered by the poison of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil to run around ever busily with works and distraction of men so much so that  we are oblivious to the presence of the abundant life within us, the life standing nearby us on the shore of the lake thundering to our trapped soul to listen and obey and become fruitful. We are always getting prepared in the day - the time in which we are supposed to be sitting still and listening - washing our nets to get back to work the next night. Jesus once said to Mary:  

Luke 10:38-42 As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. 39 She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet listening to what he said. 40 But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, "Lord, don't you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!" 41 "Martha, Martha," the Lord answered, "you are worried and upset about many things, 42 but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her."

Anyway, this too had to be so with Mary and Martha as it was divinely ordered to further teach us a lesson.

Well, this life we have been talking about is called grace, and  this grace does not have its origin in the day we got born again, in fact it had always been there before the world began. So what’s the world, then? It most certainly doesn’t have to do with the cosmic reality as the carnal mind of men tend to perceive but, rather a concept or thought to denote a spiritual state of mind called death or annihilation or blindness and spiritual deafness.  Yes, we all have natural eyes, ears and heart - in fact this is what composed the world  or in other words the earth, as you will see referred to often in the book of revelations.

The formation of this world has a beginning, but the deposit of grace or eternal life in us has no beginning. Brother Paul calls it the “Christ in you:”

Col 1:27 To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.

 

This revealing truth links us to the content of our opening passage above, which is 1 Tim. 1, 8. Brother Paul, therefore,  was reminding and encouraging Timothy and, for that matter all men who will awake to the reality of the Christ in them, to endeavor to stick to the voice they heard at the lakeside asking them to launch into the deep for deep catch. The voice calling them to awake from their sleep and the deadness of the human identity to conform to the divinity in them. A call for men to move from the common-place and averages of their human understanding to soar and excel to exceptional dwelling place of the Spirit where the eagles gather. A calling to abandon the mediocre and embrace the perfection. A calling to move away from the old heaven and earth to take refuge in the New Jerusalem, on top  of mount Zion, the ancient mountains of the Lord.

 Mind you! Here too we are not talking about geography, but about a spiritual reality that can be ascended to and experienced. I tell you while the multitude are wallowing in religion and crying to a god outside of them, lots of others have found the narrow way to the paradise of God and have entered in. oh how I would love to touch the issue of the Mayan prophecy here but I won’t, because  I am preparing another article about that.

Brother Paul hints further that this transition or passage from the lower realms or our humanity to the peak of Zion is no longer to be understood as based on religious beliefs and ideas; it’s no longer to be perceived as determined by dos and don’ts of the church; it is no more to be construed as fueled by our human attachments and identity, but rather as a discovery  of this age-old truth about our beginnings in the eternal God, and waiting to see the power nested in this truth transform us from people groping in darkness and ignorance of who we truly are, to knowledgeable men and women who walk in the fullness of the midday of the Lord.  This is our holy calling!

In verse 8, Paul acknowledges two difficult areas in our realization of godliness:

·       Firstly, the difficulty in letting go of our seemingly safe, familiar and well-settled mistaken human identity which we call our life. This means the faring off of that which we have always known and considered our life and true identity; that water below from the well of Jacob after the flesh which the Samaritan woman had always known and identified with; that life characterized by the knowledge of good and evil  by which we see only problems and imperfections and for which we think we have  to reach out and solve. 

 As long as we see this to be our life it will be hard for us to reach out for the water above which is our true life. Jesus once said, “I, remember we have said this means “you” am from above but “you” the self or Adamic nature, which in the deadness of our human identity, which most invariably is the one always speaking and acting, are from below. This is the reason why the communication of Jesus often sound wired to us. Often he is addressing the old man within.  When John the Baptists tried to talk Jesus out of the necessity of his having to be baptized in Jordan, it wasn’t the Spirit of God who was influencing the life, perception and utterances  of John speaking at the moment. It was a flash of the manifestation of the Red Dragon, which is the carnal mind of man. If we don’t understand this way of communication of Jesus, we will miss it all.  We will think that God is one thing and we are another.

In effect, we are saying that there is an uncertainty and discomfort involved in truly discovering yourself in Christ and arising from the dust of our human sense of being and getting transformed into the original image of the father that we all once walked in. To this was Paul’s appeal to Timothy to partake of the affliction and the pain involved as he took the leap and launched out into the unknown. Paul was literally saying to all who will see life to arise and respond to the voice calling from above unto perfection; to take back the true life we first had with the father before the foundation of this world, meaning before man was victimized by the evil judgment or the world of appearances and space and time. This is the world which started in the garden of Eden. So if you read the word you come across such phrase as, before the foundation of the world, get understanding that the world began in the garden of Eden. It is a spiritual state of being of the mind, not a cosmic reality. This world intervened and cut off, secluded  and isolated us from the fountain of life.  Paul therefore was admonishing Timothy to do all it takes to exist the world - the realm of hell - and enter the kingdom.

·       Secondly, Paul was referring to the predictability of becoming a victim of a distorted and ugly religious system’s tendency to  isolate you for the purpose of eliminating and annihilating any effort at innovating and excelling into new-found vocation. After all not only did Jesus warn all who will follow the voice of life into eternity about it, but he himself was a victims of religious and societal isolation. He was exiled from his own hometown where he had spoken some of the most poignant truth that pierced the heart of the religious giants and they had, as a result, threatened to cast him down headlong from the peak of the mountain on which their city had been built. Paul himself was writing these words of exhortation to Timothy and to the world in chains for no reason other than that of refusing to be a man and convincing others to be like-minded. His words were; “don’t be ashamed of your new-found enterprise; don’t be played down by the church and the high mountains men who are ready to hurl down any trace of truth that climbs up to them; stand your ground for as long as it takes for the pull and the cleansing to be over and the morning star fully breaks forth in you. 

Brethren, this is the journey of faith. This is the majestic voice of revival or reawakening thundering from heaven calling all men to wake up from their spiritual sleep called in other words the “resurrection from the dead.”

It is the trumpet sound inviting men to come out of their grave and be loosened from their grave clothes, this is the freedom of the son. 

If you have seen the light, if you have heard the voice, if the king has said to you, “come up thither,” obey and fellowship with the voice! In the book of Acts the Angel said to Peter, “ fellow me!” 

Acts 12:8 Then the angel said to him, "Put on your clothes and sandals." And Peter did so. "Wrap your cloak around you and follow me," the angel told him.

When Peter did he was taken past the three gates then out to the city. This is our destination when we fellowship with the voice.

Don’t be ashamed of yourself that you are professing and acting differently from the common-place of men, neither be ashamed of me, an instrument the father used to wake you up to the Christ in you. My being in jail is not for a criminal act in the eyes of the father, but of men. But who cares about men? If they didn’t know Christ how will you expect them to know you? Whose counsel should we listen to, men’s or God’s? 

This life, this hope, this glory, which has always been and which will always be, is the powerful force of God to the lifting up of men from the dust whence we made our bed and slept in the deadness of our consciousness, to a place of transformation and preservation in the image, essence and identity of the father. This immortality has now been unveiled for all men to behold and be transformed into. The world has been abolished; the earth has been folded; the water above and that below interposed; the expanse of separation has been removed and the water below have lost its quality, giving way to the water above to cover the whole earth in knowledge and spiritual intelligence as the waters cover the sea.  

If this is the present state of affairs then there is an important question everyone ought to ask themselves: are we really in the faith? Have we understood what the gospel is all about? Are we indeed saved? If the answer is yes, then how come no one is raising a finger at anything? How come people are not being cast out of the church today? How come not many are labeled heretic in the body today. The only divisions and splits we see in the body today are personal-gain motivated and propelled. Have the church and the unbelieving world so evolved into adjusting to one another? But didn’t Paul say that there certainly has to be differences among you to show which of you have God's approval? 1 Cor. 11:19.

Finally brethren, think about this following passage and ask the Lord of light and life to wake you up:

Luke 7:24-27 24 After John's messengers left, Jesus began to speak to the crowd about John: "What did you go out into the desert to see? A reed swayed by the wind? 25 If not, what did you go out to see? A man dressed in fine clothes? No, those who wear expensive clothes and indulge in luxury are in palaces. 26 But what did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet.

      

  God bless you.

  Jonas Opoku-Forson

HE WHO HAS AN EAR

LINK TO AUDIO VERSION

In my profession as an English teacher, I run summer activities for children in the months of June and July each year when school is over. These activities have two-fold benefits: as other such activities, organized by schools and parishes around the nation in that period of time, they offer parents the opportunity of a place to keep their children between the time school finishes and the holidays month, which is August. Secondly, children who choose to do a week or two activities with me have the chance to work up their English in a fun and non-conventional setting.  

Role-playing is the most popular activity with these kids and one of the stories we role play is the “English dictation lesson.” In it, the teacher, Miss Lake,  has a dictation exercise with Sally and Daisy. Sally, who understands that in English you don’t pronounce words the way you write them, studied hard and got all the dictated words right. Daisy, who takes English for granted, thinking that in English, as in Italian, words are written the same way they are pronounced, wrote the words the way the sound, so getting her dictation all wrong. In the end Sally gets ten marks for her work while Daisy gets zero. Daisy’s really sad.

Today, the kingdom of God is guilty of this way of thinking. God himself has been loud and clear several times over about his communicative approach and style with humans, and particularly so when he made the following declaration in the book of Psalms. we read:

 Ps 78:2, I will open my mouth in parables, I will utter hidden things, things from of old NIV.

Whereas God has made it clear that his style of communication is parables, symbols and allegories, not plain language, we who are his interlocutors, his audience in other words, tend to insist on taking the content of his communication by its face value. Whereas the Father warned that he will interact with his children through allegories and symbols, his children choose the seemingly easy way out. This stance can either be interpreted as implying a share unwillingness to lay hold on what it takes to understand the coded messages of the Father or as pathetic inability to perceive that there could be a second meaning to that which seems  apparent.

Twice the Father admonished all men to listen to his only beloved son in whom he is well pleased. If the he is well pleased in the Son, and he highlights this fact, there must be a reason and that reason must be known to all men. There is no secrecy with God. Well he first invited us to listen to the Son at the time when Jesus was still standing right in the middle of river Jordan, after he’d been baptized by John. Then the second time when he went up the mount of transfiguration with his most loved disciples, Peter and John. Let’s read these passages:

Matt 3:16-17. As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and lighting on him. 17 And a voice from heaven said, "This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased." NIV

Matt 17:5 While he was still speaking, a bright cloud enveloped them, and a voice from the cloud said, "This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him!" NIV

As I said, for God to affirm and reaffirm the importance of our listening to the Son, there must be something of vital importance about the character of the Son.

Now, it may not have dawned on us yet the reason for which God created humans with two ears. It certainly wasn’t by chance neither was it for the sake of mere better audio perception of people. Rather it is for a designed purpose. Let’s find out the answer in the word of God. In the book of Revelation, John saw the Alpha and the Omega and among the massages that were given to him to relay to the seven churches scattered in Asia, there was one destined to the church in Pergamum. Let’s listen to the content of the message:

Rev 2:12-16 " 12 To the angel of the church in Pergamum write: These are the words of him who has the sharp, double-edged sword. 13 I know where you live — where Satan has his throne. Yet you remain true to my name. You did not renounce your faith in me, even in the days of Antipas, my faithful witness, who was put to death in your city — where Satan lives. 14 Nevertheless, I have a few things against you: You have people there who hold to the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to entice the Israelites to sin by eating food sacrificed to idols and by committing sexual immorality. 15 Likewise you also have those who hold to the teaching of the Nicolaitans. 16 Repent therefore! Otherwise, I will soon come to you and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth. NIV

In the twelfth verse of the passage above we hear the Lord Jesus introduce himself to the Saints in Pergamum as the source of the sharp two-edged sword. He throws light on what this means in the same line when he started off by saying, “these are the words of ...”  In the sixteenth verse Jesus admonished the Saints to repent otherwise he would come and fight them with the sharp double-edged sword in his mouth.  Let’s remember that God uses a lot of graphic representations to make his spiritual and abstract thoughts and concepts concrete to human understanding. We understand this from the book of Romans. Let’s read it together:

Rom 1:18-20 “The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, 19 since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. 20 For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities — his eternal power and divine nature — have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse. NIV

Verse twenty of the passage above has it that what is perceivable with our five senses is only a teaching aid God uses to unveil our mind of understanding to have insight into the spiritual attributes of the Father’s, which is called the wisdom of God.

Therefore, God’s using the double-edged sword here to denote the character of his words is to imply that his communication has a two-fold effect or  a dual connotation. It implies that the word of his mouth has a natural application as well as a spiritual one. For instance in the old testament, God used only one side of the sword to operate, that’s the natural or the veiled side of the sword. As such all the perception of God of the men of old was veiled and shadowed. But time has changed now and the Father is now using the other side of the sword, the spiritual side, to operate on the hearts of men. But the church continues to hear in shadows and replicate in shadows. It keeps on listening with the spiritual analogical ear. But the message to be decoded in this dispensation is digital(Spiritual) and, as such, can’t be perceived by the analog( natural.) there must be a “switch off!”

 

For instance the principle of sowing and reaping has a natural and apparent  application. It works for the farmer who goes out to sow his seed in Spring time and waits with expectation for summer to set in so he goes in for the harvest;  it does for a businessman who puts their money in an economic activity and toils day and night through varying business strategies, hoping to rake in a dividend at the end of the day; it works for a church person who practices the principle of sowing and reaping because they heard it preached in church. It most certainly works for the non Christian person in the remote part of the middle east who generously gives gifts as a religious gesture. In fact, you will realized that some of the most generous nations are most invariable some of the richest ones, Christian or not.

This aspect of the word of God or what is called the “breath of God” is what is meant to be understood  or perceived with one of the our ears the natural one. Humans, including church people, have always exercised this part of their hearing. This is what the old testament folks perceived of the contents of the communication of the Father’s.  Though the source was God, who is life, they died spiritually all the same because what comes in through that ear is not properly decoded enough to generate life in the hearer. In fact, it kills because it’s the letter and not the spirit; it’s the shell, not the nut. With this ear we hear the letter. Let’s see what the bible has to say about his truth:

2 Cor. 3:6 He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant- not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. NIV

The problem is that the new testament church must switch ear from the natural to the spiritual and activate the function of the other ear, staying in tune with the spirit. Why? Because this is the dispensation of life and life comes through hearing and hearing the spirit! Let’s read a passage that affirms this truth:

Rev 5:6-7 Then I saw a Lamb, looking as if it had been slain, standing in the center of the throne, encircled by the four living creatures and the elders. He had seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth. NIV

In the passage we discover John seeing the agent of resurrection, the seven spirits of God, which simply means the perfect holy spirit of God, who has been sent into the dark lower realms of our humanity to wake us up from our graves and bring about an ascension in our understanding. So the era of the switch off has dawned on all men!  The function of our analogical ear(natural understanding) must be sized down. We must ask the Father to activate our digital ear(spiritual ear) so we are able to decode his voice to us.

Anyway, going back to the sowing and reaping case at issue, we mustn’t fail to realize that as far as sowing and reaping is concerned that’s how far it goes naturally. The results we see in the natural practice of giving is the natural teaching instrument the Father is using to teach all men that the whole gospel or, better still, the whole essence of God’s divine project of salvation is about one thing and one thing only – giving and receiving, sowing and reaping. It’s all about sowing our humanity to him in order to reap God’s divinity! The prophet Hosea has something to say about this profound truth. Let’s read it together:

Hos. 10:12 Sow for yourselves righteousness, reap the fruit of unfailing love, and break up your unplowed ground; for it is time to seek the Lord, until he comes and showers righteousness on you. NIV

 Humanity is the nature that all men acquired in the fall, which is completely different from the nature of the Father. The nature of God which was the  original nature we had before the foundation of the world was laid. In our humanity or the false or mistaken identity we can’t see the Father and we can’t relate to him or interact with him because, in that consciousness, we are not compatible with his nature. The nature of the Father is one and that is what we see in Christ. He doesn’t give birth to another thing apart from what Christ reflects. God gives birth to only children who have the nature of the son, thus the Father’s. Anyone who doesn’t bear this name of the Father which comes through the new birth is none is his. They may be as religious and actively fervent as they can, but the Father doesn’t recognized them as part of him. The book of John loudly amplifies this truth when it says:

John 3:16 "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. NIV

True children of the Father’s are those who have been resurrected from their deep sleep of death, in which at one time all their awareness or consciousness was limited to the natural, to true kingdom life of insight and understanding of their true self in Christ. These ones are in tune with the spirit; these ones are alive in the land of the living; these ones have an ear to hear what the Spirit is saying to the churches.

For seven times, at the end of every massage to the seven churches in the book of revelation, the Alpha and the Omega would make this conclusive and warning statement, “he who has an ear, let him hear or understand what the Spirit is saying to the churches”.

Note that he didn’t say he who has ears as if talking in plural, but rather an ear, in singular. Note also that he didn’t say what the letter is saying to the churches, but rather what the Spirit is saying to the churches. Therefore, when the Father thundered from heaven saying, “listen to my beloved son,” he was referring to listening with the other ear, the spiritual one because with that we hear the spirit and we live.

God bless you.

Jonas Opoku-Forson

SEPARATE THE WATER FROM THE WATER

AUDIO VERSION

Genesis 1:6-8 And God said, "Let there be an expanse between the waters to separate water from water." 7 So God made the expanse and separated the water under the expanse from the water above it. And it was so. NIV

It is important to understand that the works of creation we read about in the book of Genesis has nothing to do with the creation of the natural reality that we live in. If creation story is not about what we believe it to mean, what is the story in Genesis about then? To answer this question, we must make a serious examination of the statement of brother Paul in the book of Romans.  We read:

Rom 1:20 For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities — his eternal power and divine nature — have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse. NIV.

Apostle Paul, out of the deep spiritual understanding God gave him, has given is the key to understanding the spiritual workings of the father. From the passage above we understand that everything we can perceive with our natural senses is to serve the purpose of pointing humans to the spiritual workings of God inside men. It means God uses the natural to teach us about the spiritual. If we don’t understand this truth, we will miss the communication of God to us and always clamp our interpretation of the messages of God to us to the natural. This is a problem in the church today, because this carnal understanding of the mind of God doesn’t give life, it kills. And that is the reason there is so much carnality in the church: people don’t understand God’s messages. This is what the scripture has to say about this truth:

2 Cor. 3:6 He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant- — not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. NIV

 Having got this out of the way, we want to go on a spiritual discovery of a profound truth which will open our eyes to something that has remained a mystery to many. I trust that God, by this article, will anoint your heart of understanding to perceive and receive this spiritual ministration form heaven.

In the book of John chapter four, something dramatic of deep spiritual importance happened there. Let’s read portions of it first and then we go on to unveil the mind of the father:

John 4:3-8 When the Lord learned of this, he left Judea and went back once more to Galilee. 4 Now he had to go through Samaria. 5 So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6 Jacob's well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about the sixth hour. 7

When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, "Will you give me a drink?"  8 (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.) NIV

This account has it that brother Jesus withdrew from a situation the Pharisees were attempting to manipulate against him to go back to Galilee. In the forth verse it is written that, he had to go through Samaria.”

We can’t make any meaningful headway if we don’t clear a grammar issue here: the words “have to” and “must” both express obligation, but the difference between them is that, whereas “have to” expresses an obligation coming from other people, for example from the law or from some external authority or situation, “must” expresses obligation or importance coming from the speaker or the subject themselves. For instance if I am driving a good and fast car on the highway, I have to travel at 120km per hour, though I could go far faster, but I can’t because traffic law obliges me to that limit. But if I am driving down the highway in an unstable  car, and I decide I must go at 80km per hour, it’s because it is wise for me to stay at the speed limit for reason of the instability of the car and my own safety. I oblige myself to that speed limit. Our problem at issue here about Jesus’ having to go to Galilee through Samaria is not about the present obligation expression, which is easier to tell the source of the obligation, but about the past, “he had to go through Samaria.” Because both “have to” and “must” use “had to” as their past form.

In the case of Jesus, to deduce from whom the obligation is coming, seeing that Jesus could have gone to Galilee without necessarily passing through Samaria, we need to have look at a statement Jesus made very often. We read:

John 5:19 Jesus gave them this answer: "I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does. NIV

From the passage above we understand that brother Jesus didn’t say or do things of his own will. All he did and said were reflections of a son who was at the service of his father. He acted because the father had instructed him to do so. He made utterances because the father had told him what to say. This he never denied. He never pretended that the things he said and did were his own ideas. In the light of this clarification, it is now apparent whose obligation it was that he went past Samaria to get to Galilee – the father’s, of course!

But what for? Well, the classical and most logical explanation is that he might meet the woman at the well and to save the people of the village. Much as these might be valid considerations, there is more much profound to this and it’s the father’s will for us to discover the deep spiritual truth behind this parable, as it constitutes our edification and the perfection of all those who didn’t reach the perfection of the saints today, as well as our  elevation into the spirit.

In the forth chapter of John were are examining, mention is made of the personality Jacob three times a couple of lines between each other. The first reference is in verse  5, and it reads:

John 4:5 So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph.NIV

The second mention is in verse 6. It reads:

John 4:6 Jacob's well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about the sixth hour. NIV

The third reference is in verse 12. It says:

John 4:12 Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his flocks and herds?" NIV

Who is Jacob? Why is he so important, generally in the bible and particularly in this chapter? Why is mention of him made three times in such a close range? You will note that elsewhere in the bible the same phenomenon surrounding this personality takes place. There too, mention of him is made three times minutes within each other. Could it be a coincidence or a deliberate act of the father’s unsearchable wisdom which he has always desired to communicate to us? Before we carry on, let’s go fishing out for Jacob elsewhere.

In the book of Exodus chapter three, a rather short chapter, we find the presence of Jacob in connection with the rest of the Patriarchs, Abraham and Isaac. Let’s find out:

Firstly in verse 6:

Ex 3:6 Then he said, "I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob." NIV

Secondly in verse 15:

Ex 3:15 God also said to Moses, "Say to the Israelites, 'The Lord, the God of your fathers — the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of

Jacob — has sent me to you.' This is my name forever, the name by which I am to be remembered from generation to generation. NIV

Then in verse 16

Ex 3:16" Go, assemble the elders of Israel and say to them, 'The Lord, the God of your fathers — the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob — appeared to me and said: I have watched over you and have seen what has been done to you in Egypt NIV.

The time has come to unveil the real identity of the personality Jacob, but we can’t if we do that apart from the rest of the Patriarchs. A close observation will reveal that God never told these people apart. Why?  Because, as we have already established, for Abraham, Isaac and Jacob to serve as Natural teaching aids the father is using to illume us about deep spiritual truths, they’ve got to be mentioned together. So what is God communication to us about Abraham, Isaac and Jacob?

First, Abraham. He is the representation of the beginning of our faith; he represents that worldly carnal and fruitless man who divorces himself from the world, which stands for the wisdom of this age that has shaped the cultural mindset of all men. The abyss of humanity, the grave where there is no knowledge at all. But this man heard the gospel one day, the voice that thundered from the heavenly saying, “come up thither!”  And he left all.

On the way, Abraham sheds off  part of “his life,” he sheds it off, so to say, in the same way a serpent does. He puts off his humanity; he burns off his carnality that is enmity with God, that which prevents man from entering the kingdom, that which stands in this holy temple of God’s to defile it, claiming to be God himself was placed on the altar in the person of  Isaac. Why should Isaac represent Abraham? Simple. Because Isaac was the son who bore the identity of the father because the father gave birth to the son and gave him his name which denotes identity. So when Abraham gave Isaac a name, Abraham was actually giving Isaac the same identity as the father’s. As the father is, so is the son. So when Isaac died symbolically, it was Abraham dying. Deep spiritual workings of God are mind-blowing when they are revealed to our understanding.

You will remember the father saying to Abraham in the book of Genesis:

Gen 22:2 Then God said, "Take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love, and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains I will tell you about. NIV

We’ve got to understand that God too has a sense of humour. Firstly, his saying to Abraham to take his son, the only son, Isaac, whom he loved, was not a complementary statement but, rather a sarcastic one. I mean the father was saying, “you think you have a son and that son is the reflection of your image and identity, thus your life? No! that is only a symbol of you humanity and human formation which has ripped you off you true identity which is spiritual. If you keep that humanity, you can’t have my divinity. Take that life to a place I will show you and there, I will cause you to give that life up in a symbolic sacrificial and burning gesture because, in reality anything that is burnt up doesn’t exist anymore, and without the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sin.

Well, we know how the story ends: in the process of giving up the only life Abraham thought there was to his name, the father intervenes and completes the project with a lamb – another reflection what he God himself was going to be teaching humanity later with his own life – Jesus. God doesn’t just sit up there somewhere and says things to people to do, he sets examples himself.

If we understand this deep spiritual wisdom of the father now, we will understand why the attention of Jesus is attracted to any natural satiation that reflects this truth. Let’s have a look one typical episode. We read:

Luke 7:12-15 As he approached the town gate, a dead person was being carried out — the only son of his mother, and she was a widow. And a large crowd from the town was with her. 13 When the Lord saw her, his heart went out to her and he said, "Don't cry."  14 Then he went up and touched the coffin, and those carrying it stood still. He said, "Young man, I say to you, get up!"  15 The dead man sat up and began to talk, and Jesus gave him back to his mother. NIV

Why was the attention of the Lord attracted to this issue? Why did he have to be there right at the time the body of this young man was being carried out for burial? They all correspond to the providence workings of the father. He had planned and projected this events before the foundation of the world to convey deep spiritual truths to us about our own spiritual state. So if we just tell the story and perhaps dig up a few principles and natural wisdom out of them just to consolidate our natural existence, we’ve missed it all.

From the reading above, we see the father projecting a natural episode with a deep spiritual implication. This story means everything to us for the simple reason of the statement, “the only son of his mother, and she was a widow.”

Jesus was moved, firstly, because what the father had projected for him to fulfill ages before was being accomplished right before his glaring eyes many years on. Secondly, because men would not be able to comprehend the meaning of what he had been asked by the father to do with that situation. They would not understand that the meaning of the spiritual communication from the father in relation to that episode is that, “unless we let go of our “only son,” we who are spiritual widows, who lost our  husband, Christ, we would not have our Jacob resurrected to us! “ I am the resurrection and the life”!

 

Who is Jacob then?

If you have followed attentively, you will have perceived by now who Jacob is before we even got to the last line of the  statement above. If Abraham is the allegory of our spiritual beginning and Isaac is the mortality or humanity that goes up into flames, then Jacob? Who is he?

Well, Jacob, in the nutshell, is that which is born after Isaac has been burnt up! Jacob is that new life that came out of the dead “only son” of that widow of Nain! Jacob is the reward of Abraham’s after he gave up Isaac on the sacrificial altar. Unless a grain of corn falls to the ground and dies, it abides alone. Jacob is  the “Spirit.”  Jacob is the holy of holies. Jacob is the Father in heaven. Jacob is Jethro, the father of the seven daughters. Jacob is the “Prince of the kings of the earth.” Jacob is Israel, the voice of the multitude.  Jacob is the breath of life. Jacob is the “Resurrection from the dead!”

This undoubtedly explains why the reference to Jacob three times in a row both in Exodus chapter three and John chapter four. Jacob is the third person of the Patriarch of the nation of Israel, which symbolizes the third day of the resurrection of the son of God from the dead.

“THE GOD OF ABRAHAM, ISAAC AND JACOB.”

It will have been evident by now why the father kept addressing himself as the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. It is for the same reason you can’t tell the father and the son and the holy Spirit apart, though at the end of the day, all are absorbed into the father only, because there is only one and that one is  God.

 It is for the same reason why you can’ tell the outer court and the holy place and the holiest of all apart and still call it the temple of God, though in the end the first two dissolve into the tabernacle – the holy place. The outer court will cease to exist, and so will the holy place, where the present church is  and is supposed to be feeding on Christ, but it’s stuck and can’t get to the tabernacle whose dividing line - the veil - has been rented, but many can’t get in because they are feeding on spiritual junk food. However, in the end, only the holy of the holiest place will stand because that is the dimension of the father. 

It is for the same  motive for which you can’t tell the spirit and soul and the body apart, even though, in the end all are absolved into the spirit, which is God. And it is the same reason for which you can’t tell faith and hope and love apart, although, at the end of the day, it is only love that lasts forever- and that is God. We can go on and on infinitely. 

So we see that, Spiritually for the believer, Jacob is the ultimate representation of  life. Search the scriptures and you will find that, whereas God promises the inheritance of Abraham to his people in a limited number of instances, which must be understood as meaning, the beginning of an upward journey, from bareness to fruitfulness and from the world towards the spiritual, because the natural riches and blessings of Abraham were merely a natural teaching aid the father is using to teach us spiritual truth, and I know many people will not agree with me on this line as their singing, “Abraham’s blessing as are mine,” refer mainly to the natural, you hardly find anywhere where mention of the inheritance of Isaac is made. Why? Simple. Isaac couldn’t have had any inheritance simply because he symbolized the fleshly aspect of all men; the carnality and humanity; the corruption and mortality; the decay that is laid on the altar, or what we know to be the cross, to burn up. The flesh has no inheritance! It doesn’t exist. The dead have no inheritance. They  can’t see God!

On the other hand,  time and over again, God promises his people the inheritance of Jacob or Israel. For the sake of our study, will cite just one of the many standing promises of the inheritance of Jacob the father has made in his word. We read:

Isa 58:13-14 "If you keep your feet from breaking the Sabbath

and from doing as you please on my holy day, if you call the Sabbath a delight and the Lord's holy day honorable, and if you honor it by not going your own way and not doing as you please or speaking idle words, 14 then you will find your joy in the Lord, and I will cause you to ride on the heights of the land and to feast on the inheritance of your father Jacob."

The mouth of the Lord has spoken. NIV

“The blessing” God talks about in the book of Psalm. we read:

Ps 133:3 It is as if the dew of Hermon were falling on Mount Zion.

For there the Lord bestows his blessing, even life forevermore.NIV

is not what many preachers make us believe it is. In fact, the last phrase says it all:  “even life forevermore.” 

So Jacob is the ultimate life that the father is giving to all men, but few have eyes to see it, ears to hear about it and heart to comprehend the nature of this Gift.

Getting back to John chapter four, we recall the conversation ensuing between Christ and the woman at the well in verse 12,  “Are you greater than our father Jacob?” they woman asked.   After all the trouble in our trying to unveil the identity of Jacob, and your patience and curiosity that have kept you pined on till this point, you can begin to answer certain questions of yours all by yourself by now. Jacob, we have established,  was the symbol

of life or the resurrection. If so, then it is understandable why Jesus was under obligation to pass through Samaria by the well of Jacob. It was to fulfill prophesy about him, the through Jacob. The Jacob of the flesh was only a shadow of the real one: “he had to go through Samaria.” He couldn’t wait to see fulfilled one of the very age-long projections of his father’s before him.

On the whole, the woman’s question, “Are you greater than our father Jacob?” was, indeed, a prophetic one, although she knew little or perhaps nothing at all about what she was saying. Jesus, on the other hand,  could have intervened right away to say, “look woman, I am the true Jacob,” but he didn’t, at least, not immediately and not that plainly.

WHO WAS THAT WOMAN AT THE WELL THEN?

The revelation of the identity of this  personality in John chapter four, who has often simply been referred to as the “woman at the well” is of profound spiritual nourishment to all believers today because she was the embodiment of mysteries that have a lot to do with us all.

To do this we need to examine certain principal elements that characterized the entire scenario.

1.      The time of the day Jesus went to the well;

2.      The number of impermanent marriages she’d been involved in;

3.      The pot of water;

4.      The well.

We read that brother Jesus got to the well around the sixth hour of the day. Note that the time element in connection with this situation can’t be taken casually because it has a remarkable implication. What does it imply then? Prophetically six is used to denoted humanity or carnality; it is used to depict human imperfections and self righteousness. It is used to represent spiritual bareness and unfruitfulness. It is used to symbolized terrestrial and earthly, not heavenly and divine. Therefore, when you hear monstrous stories told about the number 666, don’t listen to those voices, they are a fruit of the imagination of spiritually unstable and ignorant minds who are speaking from the dust realm. They don’t know the mind of the father. They can’t receive the content of the profound heavenly communication from the father. They are people who are  still walking in shadows, they haven’t been enlightened yet. These are the ones Jesus calls false prophets because they declare things they haven’t got the least understanding of. Brother Peter says these  people twist and distort  scriptures to their own destruction. Let’s look for this warning of Peter’s:

2 Peter 3:16 He writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in them of these matters. His letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction.NIV

Peter is referring to the difficulty in comprehending some of the deep revelations of Apostle Paul, saying that it takes spiritual enlightenment to understand some the writings of Paul’s and that  non-illumed minds just pick them up and enslave innocent people with them. Don’t think that this situation is a thing of the past, it is more present in the church of Christ today than it was at the time when Peter expressed his concern about it. 

However, the number 666 is indeed the mark of the beast, but what is the beast? The beast is not the so-called Satan or a future anti-Christ who will come and mark people’s forehead with the number 666 during the time of “the tribulation.” If you have any spiritual insight you will understand that the beast referred to in the bible is simply the mind of the serpent – Satan – who fed Adam’s mind in the garden and caused him to die; he cause him to fall from his spiritual state to a terrestrial state. He fed his mind with carnality, in other words, he marked his forehead with the mark of the beast, the serpent mind; carnality and humanity; death and decay; mortality and rottenness. Consequently, all men after the nature of Adam received the mark of the beast, that is the mind of Satan otherwise called the wisdom of this age. It is in this state that all people are trying to connect back to their spiritual state, by inventing religions, cultures, moralities, all kinds of doctrines, what have you. This is the world of six. 

You will remember that when the Angel appeared to Mary to announce the conception of Jesus to her, the Angel did appear in the sixth month of the year. Why? Because that was the spiritual state of the world without Jesus, including Mary. Before men receive the seed of the spirit and get impregnated with their Jesus, they merely wallow in the world of imperfection and self righteousness. This is what God calls sin, nothing else. Isn’t the meaning of Mary rebellion? Yes, it. If yes then what is the father communicating to us by choosing her as the person through whom to accomplish his divine project? God, out of his unsearchable divine wisdom, had set it all up; he had prepared a young woman by the name “Rebellion” to cause this “Rebellion” to give birth to “Obedient.” Wow! This is more than any human mind can comprehend. In effect, Mary represented humanity, because the whole of humanity is “Rebellious” and yet, God, through his grace and mercy, and by the gospel message, is calling all the “Rebellious” of the earth  to his  impregnation campaign  being carried out by the Spirit of God so that in due time they can  give birth to their “Obedient”- Jesus. This is the heart of the gospel, anything else men are promoting in whichever church or religious setup today, no matter how attractive and appetizing it might look, no matter how well settled it might be with men, is mere region. It doesn’t save!

 It should be clear by now why John the Baptist was conceived in the first month of the year. He belonged to the world of six. In fact, he was at the bottom end of that world, far away from the perfection of God. This is the reason brother Jesus said the least in the kingdom is greater than John the Baptists, in spite of what he represented.

Now, having got this out of the way, let’s turn our limelight on the woman at the well. From her own mouth, we gather that she’d had five husbands and, at the moment of her dialogue with Jesus, she was living with another man who wasn’t her husband either, making six in all! Is there any wonder why Jesus steered the conversation in that direction? No, not all!  It is apparent that it had all been divinely orchestrated. It had all been set up prophetically. Don’t you remember the bible saying; “he, Jesus,  had to go through Samaria?” Wow!  He had to direct the conversation to the issue of the husbandless of the woman to affirm and reaffirm to all men their spiritual state before he Christ comes to the scene. In fact, it doesn’t end there, there is much more to it!

That woman, like Mary,  was the natural teaching instrument that the father is using to unveil our minds and eyes to the spiritual plight of every man. From the foundation of the world we were espoused to only one husband -  Jesus Christ.  Never in any circumstances to leave our husband and marital home. God intended for us to stay in that marital union  to him eternally. Paul has insight into this spiritual marital status of  ours and so he said:

2 Cor. 11:2-3 I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy. I promised you to one husband, to Christ, so that I might present you as a pure virgin to him. NIV.

 In that union we were expected to be fruitful and replenish the earth. Now, you are begin to understand that all this pronouncements that God made in Genesis were purely spiritual utterances concerning things in relation to his workings in us. In our adulterous state, we are closely acquainted with grief, pain, despair, exploitation desolation. Through the transgression of Adam, all of us, in our Adamic nature, abandoned our spiritual marital home and went about flirting and fornicating and committing adultery with people who are not our true husband – the wisdom of this age;  this human formation; this mark of the beast 666, which has sealed us and rotten our consciousness. We become widows, though our true husband still lives. This explains why Jesus was always attract to situations involving widows. They tell our story.

In that condition, the only life we know, the only water we know, is the water from Jacob’s terrestrial well. The water which we drink but never quenches our thirst. In that state, the only symbol of life and hope and consolation is the water pot of the woman at the well.

The thing is that there is water and there is water; there is water under and water above. But there is a separation between the water and the water. The water below is not true water, and that was not meant for us. The water, our true life, which is the eternal life of our father, our husband, our foundation is given to all men, which is the one above. Jesus testifies to this truth when he said:

John 8:23 But he continued, "You are from below; I am from above. You are of this world; I am not of this world. NIV.

If Christ is our life; if Christ is our husband; if Christ is our true Jacob and our true well from whose fountain we draw living water,  then our true water comes from above, not below. This is what the father was communication to us in the book of Genesis:

Gen 1:6-8 And God said, "Let there be an expanse between the waters to separate water from water." 7 So God made the expanse and separated the water under the expanse from the water above it. And it was so. NIV

 Let us be aware that today the expanse that once separated the water from the water has now been removed and access to the water above have  been made available to all men.

WHAT BECAME OF THE WATER POT?

The water pot was broken! Broken? Yes, broken! You will have understood by now that that pot was the icon or symbol of the only life that woman, for that matter every man, knew. It was the representation of the water below. The pot spoke terrestrial language. It spoke with the voice from the dust realm. It represented the bread that fathers ate on the desert and died. It depicted the night time in which men sleep. The pot was figurative of the world of six – imperfection,

 But Jesus sad to her:

John 4:26  Then Jesus declared, "I who speak to you am he." NIV

This trumpet sound unplugged the woman’s spiritual ears and caused the scales to fall off her eyes so she could see and perceive Christ as he truly is. She had a flash of revelation of her true self. She got a glance of her true husband. She entered the world of seven  - celestial and divine- because Jesus is the one who adds up to our six to make it seven.

In the language of the book of Revelation, which is the revealed voice of the Alpha and the Omega concealed in the Psalms, Jesus himself promised the those who will overcome an Iron scepter which means power and authority. The purpose of this authority is to “break the nations like pottery.” What does this mean? In plain language it implies receiving the authority to teach the nations of the unbelieving world of darkness to come to Mount Zion, the dwelling place of light and life. Let’s read these scriptures together:

Ps 2:9 You will rule them with an iron scepter; you will dash them to pieces like pottery." NIV

 Rev 2:27 'He will rule them with an iron scepter; he will dash them to pieces like pottery'- just as I have received authority from my Father. NIV

This authority is meant to be used to point the world to the water above; to announce to them that the only pot they know, which symbolizes what they call life, is in reality vain and inexistent; that if they woke up to truth, they would discover that that true life is already inside of them; there is a torch inside that jar of clay, and that the jar must be handed to Christ who will break it and unveil their true torch to them. Read What brother Paul has to say about this truth in the Corinthians:

2 Cor. 5:1 Now we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands.NIV

So we see that the calling of the father through the son is that of handing  in that which we call “our life,” so that we can receive true life. It is a calling to divorce ourselves from our numerous concubines ( the world, which talks about our humanity or the mistaken identity we have borne in our minds all this long) to reactivate our marriage with the eternal God. This is the essence of the massage God gave to Abraham when he said to him, “Leave and go…!” and again.”

If we can receive this ministration from the father above, then know that healing will take place from within, because it is the  “Sun of righteousness rising on you with healing in his wings.”

God bless you.

Jonas Opoku-Forson