FIRST LESSON: MATHEW 16:21
From that time forth began Jesus to shew unto his disciples, how
that he must go unto Jerusalem, end suffer many things of the elders and chief
priests and scribes, and be killed and be raised again the third
day.
SECOND LESSON: JOHN 2:17-19
And his disciples remembered that it was written, The zeal of
thine house hath eaten me up.
Then answered the Jews end said unto him. What sign shewest thou
unto us, seeing that thou doest these things?
Jesus answered and said unto them, Destroy this temple, and in
three days I will raise it up.
GOLDEN TEXT: MATTHEW 12:40
For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly;
so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the
earth.
BE "BORN AGAIN:"
The three texts above deal on the issue of the three days dry
fasting observed in Brotherhood of the Cross and Star. Now, how many people in
the world have participated in the three days dry fasting periods done in
Brotherhood of the Cross and Star? Very many people are asking why the whole of
seventy—two hours should be spent on fasting. A lot of people pray that the dry
fasting should not be observed often.
Others even wish it should be stopped forthwith. Some would fast
for the first twenty-four hours and complain that they are human beings and for
that reason, they stop. Some would fast for two days and nights while a few
endure to the end.
AS recorded in Matthew 12:40 (see Supra), Our Lord Jesus Christ
promised to remain in the heart of the earth for three days and three nights.
This is why members of Brotherhood of the Cross and Star observe
the three days dry fasting. For these three days and nights, no water is drunk,
no food is tasted, bathing and brushing of teeth are not also allowed. Is this
not three days and nights' death? Whoever undergoes this fasting has died and resurrected
with Christ. This is what is called, "born again," for he has become
a new being after the fasting. This is what is keeping us alive and strong.
You would recall that, God directed Abraham to take his son Isaac
and sacrifice for Him. Abraham and Isaac were to make a journey of seventy—two
(72) hours, three days and nights, which is this same thing that we are doing
here in Brotherhood of the Cross and Star. Isaac was an earthly example which
was presented as an illustration of an impending heavenly event. The directive
given to Abraham by God was a practical demonstration of the death of Christ
and His subsequent stay in the grave for 3 days and three nights.
This episode is linked with Abraham because of the promise which
God made with him that, a root shall spring from him. In this promise, God did
not say, Abraham's children but one son. That very son who shall come from
Abraham as promised by God was Christ. Now, the problem of the entire world is
patience. God is the Father of patience. He is patient and wants us to exercise
patience. He can make a promise today which would take thousands of years to
consummate. And for this reason, whoever is devoid of this virtue would become
hopeless after the first one thousand years. However, whether you believe or
not, at the expected time, the promise must come to fulfillment.
God does His things the way He likes. It is on this ground that
our Lord Jesus the Christ said:
Think not that I am come to destroy the law or the prophets; I am
not come to destroy but to fulfill. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and
earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all
be fulfilled. (Matthew 5:17-18)
The Holy Bible is referred to as the covenant book of God, because
all what God did, what He is doing and what He shall are written therein. When
you say that this or that thing had been taken away; where do you think such a
thing is taken to? God is the Father of truth and all His words are true. Once
He makes a pronouncement, He stands by it.
A great many of you become doubtful when things go the way you did
not expect. Consider the case or Isaac. He was the only son of Abraham but God
directed that he should be used as a sacrificial lamb. Abraham accepted, and
though he had to trek for three days and three nights, seventy-two hours, he
did not change his mind. When he got to the destination, he still set a fire on
the altar to burn Isaac. This was when Isaac asked his father Abraham saying
"father, the fire is burning, where is the sacrificial lamb?" Abraham
said, "my son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering."
God is the one who sends one on an errand and goes with the one to
fulfill the purpose thereof. Since He is the sender and doer of the job, all
glories and thanks belong to Him. This is why it is said "cut down the
bush and I would set fire into it with my power."
GOD CONTROLS DESTINY:
God has never deceived and will never deceive. What He did to the
Israelites would be done to the Gentiles. He is the same yesterday, today end
forever. Why then do you doubt him and why do you murmur against Him? You have
no choice than to do whatever He directs you to do. If God asks you to jump
into burning flames, you have to comply without delay. If he directs you to
dive into the grave, you have to do same. This is because in all events and
situations, God had given answers already.
What has placed a lot of you in suffering and adverse conditions
is lack of faith. Many people, when they are sent on an errand by God, they
faithlessly doubt their safety during such missions. Why do you doubt God? Have
you ever seen a person whom God sent on an errand without escorting him to get
the job accomplished?
The will of the Most High God is Supreme. He had willed various
purposes for all his creation. No one can change God's will not matter how he
fasts, prays, preaches or weeps. He cannot change the will which He had
destined for someone, This explains why it is said:
Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall
take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil
thereof. (Matthew 6:34)
It is only God who can call one to Himself for, no one is capable
of pleasing God. If He does not elect you, you cannot be His friend. Even the
faith which Abraham had, was not his but it was freely given by God.
I want you to know that God is a hydra-head Being. He is right,
left, front, back and He is everything. He is a child, adult, woman as well as
men. If Moses had this knowledge, he would not have whipped God the way he did
as recorded at Numbers 20:11-12. You may recall that, when Moses was abused by
the Israelites for taking them away from Egypt to suffer in the wilderness only
because they were thirsty, God became a big rock. Moses was directed to point
his staff at the rock and speak for, water would come out enough for all the
people and their beasts. Since Moses was always easily exasperated, he took
offence on the abuses and curses heaped on him by the Israelites and smote the
rock twice. For that reason, God was not pleased with him because, he did not
glorify God in the presence of the people. He was therefore, not allowed to
enter into the promised land. (Numbers 20:1-20).
Moses did not know that both the rock and the water that gushed
out of it was God in disguise. So, you can see how incomprehensible the
Almighty God is. No one knows Him.
Unlike the case of Moses, when Abraham had set Isaac ready for the
sacrifice, God ordered him not to take the boy’s life. He was shown a ram by
the side which was used for the sacrifice (Genesis 22:10-13). After the
sacrifice, Abraham and Isaac went home in flying colours. That is the
significance of the death of Christ
When He told the Jews to destroy the temple and He would rebuild
it in three days, the people doubted the possibility of his action and thus,
became annoyed. However, Christ knew the implication of His statement. And so
when His disciples advised Him not to go to Jerusalem, He insisted and went. If
Jesus the Christ had ran away, what would have become of this world? And if
Christ had truly ran away, could he have escaped the death which was written
for Him?
People refuse to do what God directs because of fear. They prefer
to stay in the world yet, they neither die nor live a successful life. They
cannot even have peace as a result of their failure to endure the ways of God.
And now, one can understand from, the statements made by Our Lord Jesus Christ
as recorded in the texts for this sermon that, death does not actually exist
but what happened was a demonstration of the power of God. This was done so
that His glory would be revealed.
God is the one controlling one's destiny. Some children for
instance, even at their tender ages proclaim that they want to work for God. Do
you think they are ones making the statement? This was written for them before
they were born into the physical earth plane. Unfortunately, when the time for
this assignment to manifest comes, they then resist. This however, cannot help
the situation because, what has been destined cannot be erased. Whatsoever
happens to one comes from the Father and had been written against that person
before he was born.
There is nothing that can change or stop it from taking place. It
may be recalled that, on the night of the death of Our Lord Jesus Christ, He
said that:
If it be possible, let this cup pass from me: Nevertheless not as
I will, but as thou wilt. (Matthew 26:39)
Did God grant His request on that very case? Though He preyed and
rolled on the ground until His sweat became blood, the cup was not taken away. (Luke
22:44) Finally, the will of the Father - His torture, death resurrection
manifested. The death of Christ for three (3) days and nights reveals the
person embodied in one God as recorded in 1 John 5:7.
For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the
Word, the Holy Ghost: and these three are one.
Prophet Jonah was sent to Ninevah to preach to the people against
their evil ways. He ran away because of fear of life. For that reason, the
Father disguised Himself in the form of a storm and met him in a ship on the
high sea. When the storm became unbearable, Jonah told the captain of the ship
and others that he should be thrown into the sea for, he was the cause or the
impending wreck. Jonah was thus thrown into the sea and immediately, a whale
swallowed him, where he remained for three days and three nights before he was
delivered safely on the shores of Ninevah. (Jonah 1:3—17), (Jonah 2:10)
For our Lord Jesus to stay three days and nights in the heart of
the earth was not a new thing. This is because Jonah had earlier stayed for
three days and nights in the belly of a whale. Did he not come out still as
Jonah? Why then do people doubt the death and resurrection of Our Lord Jesus
Christ? Daily, God is revealing a lot of things in various forms, yet, He is
still the same God.
A local adage says three is good but four is evil. This is another
way of expressing the Trinity of God. Three days, three houses, three years,
everything three Father, son, and the Holy Ghost. The Spiritual mathematics of
God works well with the number three. The three persons in one God are not
three Gods but one. He was Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. God only answers different
names for different occasions and missions. Also, Our Lord Jesus the Christ had
twelve Apostles but three; Peter, James, and John were completely distinct from
the rest. These three were closer to Him than the rest.
We also have body (flesh), spirit and soul which are also one in
one person. Whenever God wants to manifest Himself as a human being, He takes
up water, blood and spirit and these are one (1 John 5:8)
The change of name means nothing but the power that goes with the
name is important. Let it be known that, when one baptises, the water he falls
into is Christ? He is also baptised in the name of the Father, son and the Holy
Spirit. Therefore, one has made a mistake by saying that, God came on the
persons of Adam, Enoch, Elijah, Noah, Melchizedec, Moses, Jesus the Christ,
Olumba Olumba Obu. You are thus, declaring that, He has come eight times, which
is wrong. Which God came eight times? Is it the false God or the living and
Omnipresent God?
God came first as the Father when He used the word to create all
things. He also used the word for all works. Finally, He has come as the Holy
Spirit to stay forever.
In those days, all the prophets, and their prophecies were about
Our Lord Jesus the Christ. And Christ bore witness to the Holy Spirit. He did
not bear witness of any other being, not even the prophets but testified of the
Father.
It is said: For there are three that bear record in heaven, the
Father, the Word and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one.
And there are three that bear witness in earth, the Spirit, and
the water and the blood: and these three agree in one. (1 John
5:7-8)
That is why, in Brotherhood of the Cross and Star, we always
regard three things, faith, hope, and love as being important. See the first
lesson below:
FIRST LESSON: MATHEW 16:21
From that time forth began Jesus to shew unto his disciples, how
that he must go unto Jerusalem, end suffer many things of the elders and chief
priests and scribes, and be killed and be raised again the third
day.
CHRIST DIED FOR THREE DAYS AND NOT TWO:
From the above text, one should understand that Our Lord Jesus
Christ predicted a seventy-two hour death, no more, no less. Now, the worldly
people believe that He was killed on Friday (Good Friday). Count from Friday
morning to Sunday morning, is it up to seventy-two hours? Where are all their
mathematicians; has Satan not deceived them? If one adds up the days, he would
see that, from 6:00 AM of Thursday to 6:00 AM of Sunday which He resurrected
the number of days are complete.
Now count, from 6:00 AM Thursday to 6:00 PM Thursday is the first
day. From 6:00 AM Friday to 6:00 PM Friday is the second day. From 6:00 AM
Saturday to 6:00 PM Saturday is the third day. Also, from 6:00 PM Thursday to
6:00 AM Friday is the first night. From 6:00 PM Friday to 6:00 AM Saturday is
the second night. From 6:00 PM Saturday to 6:00 AM Sunday, when Mary Magdalene
visited the tomb to discover the resurrection, is the third night. These are
therefore three days and three nights or seventy-two hours. So, if you have
been joking with the number, three, do not joke any more.
In Brotherhood of the Cross and Star, there are also (3) three
Pentecostal periods. These are to signify the special number three - Father,
Son and the Holy Spirit, the Most United Trinity three in one God.
The December Pentecostal assembly represents the birth of Our Lord
Jesus Christ. The April or Easter Pentecostal is used to remember His period of
persecution, tribulation, death and resurrection. The August Pentecostal
represents the time which Christ baptised, received the Holy Spirit, and was
revealed to the world. Now are these three occasion not but one thing?
These three things however, cannot happen one day. It was not the
day He was born that He died, and the day He died was not the very day He was
baptised and revealed to the world.
If you had known that just as Jonah was three days and nights in
the belly of the whale, so also was Our Lord Jesus Christ in the heart of the
earth for 3 days and 3 nights, what stops you from doing this three days' and
nights' dry fasting? This seventy—two hours dry fasting signifies the
seventy—two hours death of Our Lord Jesus the Christ.
All those who do not respect or recognise these three periods are
rebels. Such people will be judged and condemned. But all those who observe and
recognise these periods, in truth, shall have eternal life. We have no other
job to do for Christ than to worship Him and honour His words. If the whole
world truly believe in instructions of Christ and practise same, all burdens
would be made light and all problems solved.
Joke no more with the words of God, and do not oppose, doubt or
ask Him questions any more. It was out of a doubtful minded that Peter argued
and rebuked Our Lord Jesus Christ for saying that he would be tortured and
killed in Jerusalem. Peter said such must not take place but Jesus the Christ
said:
Get thee behind me, Satan thou art an offense unto me: for thou
savourest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men. (Matthew
16:23)
The fact that Peter rebuked Christ did not stop the will of God from
manifesting in Him as predestined. Why Peter rebuked Him was because, it was
written that the Christ would not die forever and so, if He is overcome by
death, then, He was not the one. Therefore, for Our Lord Jesus Christ to talk
of death, Peter felt be had made a wrong choice by following Him. Read the
second lesson again:
SECOND LESSON: JOHN 2:17-19
And his disciples remembered that it was written, The zeal of
thine house hath eaten me up.
Then answered the Jews end said unto him. What sign shewest thou
unto us, seeing that thou doest these things?
Jesus answered and said unto them, Destroy this temple, and in
three days I will raise it up.
MAN IS THE TEMPLE OF GOD:
Brethren, it is said that the testimony from two persons has
established a truth of any case. By the statement, "destroy this temple,
and in 3 days I will raise it up." Christ was referring to Himself. He was
asking the Jews to kill Him and after three days, He would resurrect.
The above statement by Christ is a proof to the fact that whenever
the Almighty God passes an instruction, nothing changes it. That is why when
His disciples started admiring the magnificent buildings of the temple. He made
it clear to them that, they all shall be destroyed beyond repair. (Matthew
74:4-2) A spiritual song says, "I will destroy the old and rebuild a new
Jerusalem for you."
If all the synagogues and temples were useful to God, why did it
become necessary that Jesus the Christ should come? These places did not
practise the injunctions of God which necessitated the coming of Our Lord Jesus
Christ. As such, Christ came to destroy all of them and made the worship and
dwelling place of God in the body of human beings.
If any person builds a house or cathedral and calls it the house
of God, he is telling lies, for, God dwells in man. This is why it is said
that:
The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord,
and of his Christ: and he shall reign forever and ever. (Revelation
11:15)
Now, the dwelling place of God is now with us and He shall dwell
with us forever.
At John 4:21, Our Lord Jesus Christ first told the Samaritan woman
that, a time will come when the Father will neither be worshipped in the
mountain nor at Jerusalem but that the true worshippers shall worship the
Father in spirit and in truth. At John 14:26, He also promised us that, at the
appointed time, the Comforter will come to teach everyone to know God in spirit
and in truth. By the time that Comforter, even the Spirit of truth did not
come, everyone worshipped God in the flesh. However, now that He has arrived,
we have to worship Him in our bodies, not in a house, mountain, Riverside or
forest.
Now, the New Jerusalem is being built. Brothers Etop, Essah,
Akwang, Etuk and others are putting in their efforts to see its completion. In
it, we shall stay to enjoy feast and sing praises to God but His real
house is your body. And whenever you undergo a three days dry fasting it is
properly swept and kept clean for God to habituate. This is why members try by
all means to participate in the exercise. Whoever fails to observe the dry
fasting has himself to blame.
See the Golden Text Below:
GOLDEN TEXT: MATTHEW 12:40
For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly;
so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the
earth.
FASTING PURIFIES THE FLESH:
When the disciples of John the Baptist asked Our Lord Jesus Christ
why His disciples do not fast whereas they and the Pharisees do, He told them
that the children of the bridegroom cannot mourn when the bridegroom is still
with them. He also assured them that, once the bridegroom is taken away from
them, then the children will start fasting. (Read Matthew 9:15-16 for
clarification). Accordingly, whoever is in the flesh cannot fast. As such,
the Holy Spirit, even the Father, has come to dwell in His "house."
Then will Satan, the evil spirit will come in and exist there in. Once the evil
spirit indwells you, you cannot worship God in Spirit and in truth. However,
now that the Holy Spirit, even the Father, has come to indwell in His
"house," you have to fast so that the house may be the essence of the
seventy-two hours dry fasting.
Our Lord Jesus the Christ said through Brother Paul that:
For our conversation is in heaven from whence also we look for the
saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ: Who shall change our vile body, that it may be
fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is
able even to subdue all things unto himself. (Philippians
3:20-21).
Everybody has been changed but no one knows that he is changed and
to what extent. Being changed therefore, you are not wearing the old weak body
anymore. You are now clothed with the power and life. Our Lord Jesus Christ
Himself bore witness of this fact when HE said:
Verily, Verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works
that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do: because I
go unto my Father. (John 14:2).
Have you not seen the work which is greater than all the works
done by Christ. The entire world is a witness to the great works done by
Christ. The Father has come as a thief in the midnight so that the worldly
kings and so-called wise men are dumbfounded and mesmerised. For the fact that
the Holy Spirit is here with us, we have no importance attached to house, cars,
wealth, food or money but what is important to us is the New Kingdom of God.
The good news of the kingdom should be spread to all parts of the universe. We
have to reveal the kingdom to all creation. The New Kingdom has now been
revealed to the entire world.
Just as Jonah stayed in the whale's belly three days and nights,
so did Our Lord Jesus Christ remain in the heart of the earth for three days
and nights. Likewise, Brotherhood of the Cross and Star fast for three days and
three nights without eating, drinking, bathing or brushing the teeth.
Therefore, all those who participate in the dry fasting are followers of Christ
and have crucified the flesh with all its lusts and passion on the cross. They
have forsaken all types of carnalities and welcome the Holy Spirit.
Galatians 5:24 states: They that Christ's have
crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.
One can only crucify the flesh through fasting. Whether the world
likes it or not, the flesh must be crucified to allow the spirit to take
dominion.
Even as Jonah and Jesus the Christ spent seventy-two hours each at
that state of temporary death, all humanity have to die with Christ for
severity-two hours and also resurrect with Him.
If we die with, Him we shall resurrect and be saved.
During these fasting, all the choristers in the universe in all
planes, spiritually and physically are here to gather and sing melodious songs
to the Holy Spirit. They should stay throughout the period to rejoice with God.
Very soon, people will be coming from all parts of the world to stay with the
Father and participate in this seventy-two hours dry fasting, and those who
were with various illnesses will be made whole.
May God bless His Holy Words. Amen.
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