Looking unto Jesus

S.SEKOU ABODUNRIN

Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; … Heb 12:2a

The author of the epistle to the Hebrews is familiar with the tendency of the human. We are told that the verse reads better as “looking off unto Jesus ..”. He had skipped through history speaking about faith and men of faith, the diverse circumstances and practices of the lives of these giants, yet even here he urges us to take that all in and look off – off unto Jesus. There is a real temptation to have our attention drawn away from the object of all of the Father’s revelation – the man Jesus. It might come as a shock at first, God will use every possible opportunity to expose you to the revelation of his Son, but God is not really interested in you knowing about a lot of things – it can be narrowed down into one, he wants you to know the son. Possessing this Son, we are said to possess all things for all the inheritance and the wealth of the ages in bound up and only accessible in the son.

What the Son revealed to each person in Hebrews 11 is different. He didn’t speak to Moses about offering his son, neither did he speak to Samson about building a ark. The knowledge was bound up in the revelation of the Son and was specific to each person.

Paul said that all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden in the son [col 2:13]. It stands to reason therefore that as all the treasures of knowledge and wisdom is in Christ Jesus all forms of revelation, exposition or teaching that doesn’t proceed from this Christ-consciousness will be flawed. God brings you into all knowledge by bringing you into his Son.
To see into the Son therefore is to see into all knowledge and all wisdom and all that really matters in the eternal scheme of things.
It seems that the farther we develop within the church system, the more “things” aware we become – people speak of 1000 ways to victory, 2 million ways to the walk of excellence and the likes, but can this really be true? Are there such complications in God? We are hard pressed it seems to follow the latest fad or the current trend as espoused by the sages of the Christian world, but the warning of the apostle rings true – Looking off unto Jesus. He is the author of your belief system and the development and progression of it unto perfection.

Often we hide behind a lot of activities “spiritual activities” we call them, these activities it is said are designed to get one thing or the other from God. Spiritual activities in themselves are not bad, in fact they can do you a world of good, but only if you participate from a vantage point of the revelation of the Son. Jesus, when he sat by the well of sychar points out an interesting fact [John 4:10] – “if you knew who it is that asketh thee of drink, you would ask …” in other words the woman didn’t know what to ask, not because she didn’t have needs, or because she wasn’t religious enough, but because she didn’t know the man in whose presence she stood. In other words really asking things of the Lord in itself doest amount to much spirituality if I ask without revelation, a revelation into the fullness of the son.

The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican Lk 18:11

The Lord, in a parable, was teaching about prayer contrasting the Pharisee and the publican. You notice that the Lord does not deny that the Pharisee was praying, but he was praying with himself! The whole while the fellow thought that he was in conversation with God! The whole thing revolved around him, his need, his perfections, it was not Christ centred, by that I mean he didn’t start from a revelation of the Lord and so did not know the ways of the Lord with whom he thought to engage in prayer. It is good to pray, but not good to pray with yourself. It is better to let the Lord drop his mind into your heart, release into your spirit a revelation of himself. This releases you to pray properly and not with yourself.

Often the things we are asking for and yearning for as believers betray our insensitivity to the Lord. Have you been at that place where you were convinced that some answer to prayer, or some happening or occurrence was all that was left to end your struggles? It is good to want out of these constraints and by all means I urge you to break out, but the fact remains that the bottom line is that you are really convinced that that which you need is somewhere out there, in some circumstance or some change in the arrangement of events. Thing is we readily conceive of this as victory, but nothing can be farther from the truth!

The challenge is in the outlook. We need to learn to allow our vision, aspirations, desiring and believing match up with the reality that is already available in Christ Jesus. So you are thinking that some book out there holds the key? Perhaps some meeting or convention is the icing on the cake for your year. There is nothing wrong with meetings, but no meeting is of any worth when it doesn’t proceed from having Christ as your infinite supply. Even this article is not the answer, but a pointer to the answer who is not a book or a sermon, but a person. Let me state it different so the facts hit you right – you have been looking, but looking rather obtusely. God truly richly gives us all things to enjoy, there is no mistaking or hiding from that fact, but you need to recognise the gift of God! In reality God is not a specialist at giving us things per se, his specialty is in giving us his Son who is the heir of all things – all things really means all things. When God gave you the Son he truly gave all.

We do not really come to God so that things will be better, we come that he might unveil his Son in whom are hidden all the wealth of the eternities. Do you want victory? Start by acknowledging that victory is not some event far out in the yonder place but a person, a man, indwelling you by his Spirit this very minute – victory lives in you. When all is said and done you will have entered farther into the Son, for he is all you’d ever need. Imagine, victory lives in you; victory walks in you and is free in you this minute. You are hidden in victory, clothed with victory, submerged in victory now.

This pervades everything we do. I know what it is to fast and pray and to be consumed with the fast itself or the reason for the fast; not understanding that the reason that counts in the long run is Christ. Some are more depressed about the fact that they broke their promise not to eat before a given time, than they are the fact that their mind wasn’t full of him. The fast was really about timings, and not the Lord. So we have come to define the giant as he that is an expert at the “acts” and not the one who is God-consumed and sold out to Jesus as a person. Believe me, I have met folks who would do anything so that God might do something for them, then once the “thing” is done, they are off. This we call agonising in prayer and travailing in prayer but it is truly about things. I don’t so much want my brother to “get born again” as I want him to have Christ as his life, Christ as his mind, Christ as his intellect, Christ as his fullness, Christ as his all – it is really Christ that I am after and so everything becomes an outpouring of Christ – this doesn’t stop for Christ is our infinite supply.

There was a time when I spent almost all my prayer time talking to, about or against the devil. After much sweating you stop, to resume some other day – I had just read about “spiritual warfare”. I thought, unconsciously, that my victory was in Satan’s hands and I must wrest it out of his hands. Little did I realise that that didn’t fit the bible definition of prayer, for prayer is talking and visiting with God, receiving his mind on everything and celebrating the Lord.

It is unsafe to talk about any form of warfare without first obtaining a revelation of Jesus. I recall reading some books over 15 years ago – they were all full of the enemy, his operations, tactics and methods but lacking in that richness that brings a man into things divine. There was little unveiling of the master, yet these were Christian books! Do not miss this fact – when the Spirit is come he glorifies Jesus; he takes the things of Jesus and not the things of demons. He doesn’t give you a revelation asides the revelation of Jesus, for in that revelation you have all that you need to know. In reality all that really matters. You will recall that before the book of Ephesians speaks about spiritual warfare it settles our thinking with this prayer of Paul’s – grant unto them the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him [Eph 1:17]. Isn’t that noteworthy? The apostle is concerned that there is a tendency to gain wisdom and revelation into things asides the true revelation which is the revelation of the ascended and enthroned Lord in glory.

So you want to discern the devils in your street? In reality you need to receive the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him – then all things open up. Discern the mind of the Lord – it is him with whom you have to do and as you do that, his Lordship, glory and light is demonstrated in and through you. You need a revelation o the mystery of Christ in you!

There was a lady I was having a conversation with a while back, all that she wanted to talk about was her dreams – thing is what she actually referred to as dreams were nothing but nightmares. I was keenly aware of the scriptural and universal law that as a man thinketh in his heart so is he [Prov 23:7]. In simple terms that kind of talk will only make her nights gloomier. I kept steering her away from such talk but she wouldn’t have it, she wanted to talk exclusively about such dreams for to her that was deep spiritual warfare and understanding those dream was gaining understanding into everything. She was unaware that the Lord says that he will keep in perfect peace those who stay their minds on the Lord [Isa 26:3]. In a subtle sense she was correct, profoundly so, but she missed the germ of it – the war is to keep her focused on anything but the Lord. She wanted out of the night mares but failed to realise that a transformed mind wouldn’t dwell on things that don’t agree with the mastery, Lordship and glory of Christ Jesus – she had stopped looking unto Jesus, she was all caught up in her dreams, their spiritual significance, what God was trying to say and the likes. You know it is amazing how many of us exalt our dream life above the revealed word - yea God does speak through dreams, but he has spoken clearly and fully in his son. If we would get one tenth as excited about what God has said in Christ as we are about dreams and the likes what an unveiling life would become.
…to be continued