Chapter 11 Sermon 5

Echoes From Paradise #Part 10

Here I Stand

After my experience on several hills, attending different services, I arrived on the eighth hill, and as I attended one service in the evening, on the eighth day of my pilgrimage on that hill, I found myself so much caught up in the Spirit and so inspired that I also stepped forward to preach… so incredible! but everything suggested it, I couldn’t help it. All faces were on me. It seemed like every heart was crying after me, to wake up and preach. I became the centre of the meeting. It looked like even trees, birds, cattle, beasts, and creeping things were looking at me with expectations, so earnestly, that I was the next online. I couldn’t escape it. No need to.

The birds were gathering around, crying in the branches of the trees surrounding the camping ground. The cattle were all mowing, crying after me, sniffing the air. They had all stopped grazing. The creeping things also and the beasts signalled it, buzzing around. All their cries were magically touching my heart… crying for something from me. All were thirsting after me, it seemed, even the angels of heaven too, curiously looking down, signalled me to be man enough to take the stage. I couldn’t understand… Why? And how? Why everything thirsting after me… me? How ridiculous it seemed! But I realized that the Spirit of God was sweeping upon my heart, strangely, showing the way I should take – very definite! I had to heed the call and deliver the next sermon! Uh-hu!

My! I was caught, no way of slipping out. All things demanded for me, me also, to preach. They were all thirsting to hear from my mouth. From the very horse’s mouth. Is it? Uh… Heaven and earth converged towards me. The clouds and the sea whispered it in my ears, that I was next online. The air, whispering through the branches, whistled it into my ears. What a conspiracy!

I stood bewildered. Why me? And why should it be on the eighth hill of my pilgrimage and on the eighth day upon the same hill? I mused on, having been grabbed by a nervous spell… then a voice rung out from the silent auditory:

“‘There is a man that is lately come among you,’ says the Spirit, ‘and he has the message of the hour to deliver to this generation. He arrived among you seven days ago. He has gone from glory to glory, and he has been fed with honey and milk, experiencing a transformation into the eighth day, even the day of the Lord. His bosom is loaded with true bread for this hour. All are looking for him, thirsting, earnestly crying after him to declare to them the acceptable day of the Lord. He is clothed in white shirt and grey trousers, seated on the left side of the auditorium, on the second row from behind and third lane from the wall. The Lord is with thee, arise and declare what is in your bosom!’ says the Spirit.” The prophecy sounded like a trumpet peal.

My heart went pump, pump, pump… I knew I was the one. No more doubt. So, I kneeled on the floor and cried to God to have mercy on me and stand with me. The place was too holy for me… me also to speak, with my croaky voice? But the Spirit hastened me forward; unto the platform I stepped… a stranger in Jerusalem! With tears rolling on my cheeks, trembling, all nervous, I started:

“Lord, I step forward in your name, the most unworthy creature burdening your presence; I loath to be so, I am sorry, so help me. I wouldn’t have stepped here for anything, but your Spirit has moved upon me, urging me to do it. So, here I stand, in your hands I am; by myself I can do nothing; yet, in your name, by your word, all things are possible. So help me, Lord. Amen.

“My precious brothers and sisters, what shall I say to you, the very seventh group, quite up the scale! I have lately arrived among you, as one born out of season, and thus I might sound to all old timers, the veterans of the seventh battalion. So, if I sound croaky to all who hail from such a realm, excuse it to my being born out of season, beyond the seventh, I mean. So, being of another season, I may seem out of tune with many of the old guards, quite normal! And thus, I beg you to listen to me patiently, especially you who are of the seventh battalion, the veterans guarding the former interests. I may not command so much about that season, not used to being repetitious, and not so much loaded with historical stores. Yes, hear me patiently, so I beg.

“The scripture says, ‘In the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God, all things were made by him; and without him was not anything made that was made. In him was life, the life was the light of men.’

Oh, my! What a striking revelation came to John the apostle! What! He was not just an apostle, but a prophet, twice so! What a marvelous light shined through him! Beaming right into the beginning of time and telling exactly what happened and by who. Till then no revelation had reached such depth. Moses could only say, ‘In the beginning God created heaven and earth’, but here is that which happened before God created anything else. God begetting His own son, and the same is His own Word; and the fullness of God’s Word means the fullness of God’s mind begotten as a son. What a revelation!

“In him was life! Where? In the Word! Not in some church, religion, or doctrine, but in the Word! And what is that life? Light! God is life eternal, and life is light. And being Life, it is fruitful, and the fruits thereof are pure, holy and righteous. This life was made manifest in the Word of God, and the same is the son of God. On the other hand, death is darkness, and its fruit is bitter, corrupt, and evil.

“A lively tree bears only lively fruits. Life’s tree has no sharp, poisonous hateful spikes in the name of thorns! Thorns such as anger, malice, hatred, bitterness, scorning, despising, adultery, whoremongering, sorcery, murder, boasting, pride, selfishness, meanness, gossiping, backbiting, whisperings, inciting, belittling, defrauding, abusing and many such like…they are not found in her bosom!

“Life is as pure, yes, as pure as light! It shines brightly clear to make a perfect day. The day of the Lord! Hallelujah? The eighth, you know. Oh, praise the Lord! A perfect day! A morning without clouds! A cloudless day! A day whose light is truth coupled with righteousness. A day whose brightness is the truth, and its rays are righteousness, and the fire thereof is holiness kindled, whose coals are most vehement. A day that allows no evil to stain it. It admits no muddy episodes to burden it. No mire pushes up its ugly head up its horizon. No unclean thing finds a hiding place within that light, nor any wicked thing.

“Everything in that day pulsates with life, life eternal. That day is that light, the light that shines from the face of the Word; yea, the light that shines from his heart, it makes a day, the day of the Lord. Oh, what a serene day for you and me! oh, how blissful!

“My brothers and sisters, can light cast up mire and filthy to stain anything?” I asked and paused.

“No, never!” Shouted the congregation.

“Can light put a heavy yoke on your shoulders in the name of some law?”

“No, never!”

“Can light cover up wicked deeds of any kind to hide from the face of truth?”

“No, never!”

“Can light formulate a heap of traditions based on the dead past to darken counsel with words without wisdom?”

“No, never!”

“Is there such a thing as a historical beam of light shining today? Shining religious traditions of the dead past, as dead as a cave?”

“No, never!”

“Can light organize religious camps built on the dead past, hailing the past and rejecting the present truth being revealed today?”

“No-o-o!”

“Can light claim that the days of prophets are done?”

“No-o-o!”

“Can light claim that there is no more revelation from God henceforth? That from henceforth and forever we only learn religious history?”

“No! Never!”

“Can light heap up teachers having itching ears, drawing disciples to themselves as they seek after popularity, fame and riches, as it is now among the seventh messenger followers?”

“Never! That is death!”

“So is life, fresh, lively, progressive, pure, holy, chaste, virgin, clean, righteous, upright, gracious, merciful, kind, patient… start there and you will never go wrong. Where? Receive life by being born again, born of the Word and of the Spirit. No more to be earthbound. No more to wallow in the mire. No more to float in the world of sin. But righteousness and holiness to flow through you as a mighty river. Hallelujah?”

“A-a-amen!”

“Yes, receive the quickening Spirit from heaven. Get out of the earthy and enter into the heavenly! The hour is here! You can’t beat it! It is not the seventh hour, please! It is the eighth hour! Stand to your day! Stand tall and be counted in your day! You will not be judged according to the revelation of God to a past generation, a generation to which you never belonged. That cannot make sense. Get out of that confusion of the traditions of men and enter into the light of your day. A seven-in-one day. What a day! Oh, and what a light!

“Once you were born of Adam, the earthy; now, be born of the heavenly, the Word of life, and you will be heavenly in all your endeavors! Hallelujah?”

“A-a-amen!” The multitude roared back.

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life; and the life was the light of men. John 1:1-4 A-a-amen?”

“A-a-a-amen!”

“Hallelujah?”

“A-a-a-amen!”

Previous