31

“Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah:

Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the LORD:

But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; after those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people.

And they shall teach no more every man his neighbor, and every man his brother saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”

Jeremiah 31:31-34

               Before I go on to talk about what has been laid in my heart, I would like to share this; I used to grow up liking the name Jeremiah. Back in late primary school and through my secondary school days, I would add Jeremiah to my names. Frankly, I didn’t really know why but it was always so. As I grew, I didn’t see much meanings to the name but for every time I opened my bible to glance a read, it would be Jeremiah. Somehow, I knew there was something about me and the name, so I wrote my name ‘Chizoba’ just beneath the book in my bible.

               Asides the regular and popular lines of the book like, Jere. 1:5, 19; 29:11, 20:9 and more as you know, the entire book gives me the shivers when I read it, why? “It virtually addresses everything about me”; my fears, my doubts, my pains, my present, my past, my future and not just about me but addresses my immediate society/environment. I will tell this story of one of the nights in 2017 when I was lost and in need of direction, I cried sore, I wept bitterly and it was so heavy on me that I could barely speak in prayers. I took my bible and immediately the voice said, Jeremiah, at the mention of Jeremiah, I began to cry more. The voice lead me from scripture to scripture, meeting and tackling each question I asked, one at a time. I left that moment refreshed and renewed.

               When the Spirit of the Lord moves in a man, He gives him purpose and direction. If there is one thing I have pressed for, it is for a mind that is after Jesus and His ways. When I came in contact with the above scriptures, I pitched my tent and prayers on them. There is a season coming and that is the season where God’s Spirit and Word is on the lips of everyone; not in falsity but in sincerity. A season of true manifestation of God’s kingdom. Indeed, God is moving in this generation but my soul, deep within craves for more as though it is yet to start. Deep calls into deep. God is moving, yes, He is doing more. He is raising an army unto Himself. A people totally dedicated to God and not church or denomination. A people who are set to take kingdoms by force and manifest God’s Kingdom here on earth.

Isaiah prophesied it, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Joel and all the prophets of old spoke of that season. In the New Testament, Jesus brought it to earth and the apostles received it and passed it on till it got to our generation. Jeremiah 31 describes a season in Israel that would not just be for a season but forever! It is coming! I hear the sound of it. Recent news has it that the capital of Israel is moving to Jerusalem! Hallelujah! This is all part of the fulfillment of the Words of God’s prophets for Israel. I being a gentile but now engrafted into the family of God by faith, rejoice that this season has started!

31, today’s date is a special day cos it’s my birthday and more so, it is in line with this scripture and it goes to show that God really has something for us all. It is the end of the year but it is the beginning of a new dawn. My father in the Lord, Bishop David Oyedepo of Living Faith church, themed Shiloh 2017, A NEW DAWN. To close the year, another father, Pastor Kumuyi themed the December retreat this same year, THE DAWN OF A NEW BEGINNING. It’s not a coincidence, it is divine providence. God is working!

God is putting His spirit in us all, He is revealing Himself to us all, and He is impressing His will for us all on our hearts. In Jeremiah 31, God paints a picture through prophesy of a unique people that would call on God as their father, would not need to be afraid of anything, lack nothing and expand throughout the earth unhindered simply because He has willed to be the God of all the families of Israel. The part that gets me excited is the part where God says, “There will be no need for anyone to teach his neighbor or brother saying, know the Lord, for they shall all know ME.” In this season, God is building a one-on-one relationship with everyone. We will be so connected that our connectivity level will be at the highest frequency! God will be walking with man and man with God! Further down the scripture He (God) now makes a vow saying, if the ordinances of heaven (sun, moon, seas and its wave), can change or will cease to be then and only then will His words not come to pass!

I have so much conviction of this whenever I write or speak about this prophesy. Why? Because God has spoken it and so shall it be! Nothing would make me happier than when this comes to pass. “GOD ON EVERY LIPS”. Not just the name of God, but a divine knowledge of God in addition to it!

I wish I could give a full description of my feeling right now. I am super-excited that God will do this and it has begun! Thy KINGDOM COME!

EXTRAVAGANT GRACE

Grace is God’s extension of His undeserved goodness to man, a form of amnesty without conditions except that of acceptance of His Son as your Lord and Saviour. Our redemption by His Blood spilled on the cross sets us up for this unmerited favour. His Grace is beyond the sparse of time and unlimited from age to age, timeless and enduring as long as man breathes and Jesus tarries. We don’t qualify for His Goodness but we get that goodness because someone paid the price for it – Jesus.

By rights we are deserved of death but in His Sovereignty and magnanimity He lowered himself to be of no pulchritude so that He could once and for all time give us that which belongs to us by His Divine Exchange where He gave us His Beauty for ashes. One cannot grasp the depth of this Grace. The concise dictionary can only give a human limited meaning to it but it takes a man who has been Graced (Experienced Grace) to tell what it truly means – Grace is undefined to the unrefined.

The Lord Our God, true and just would have judged, in fact has judged and found us guilty but Grace stepped in and said, “There is a remedy.” When all of hell had its grip over all of man, all of God took the form of all of man – Jesus and paid the price once and for all for all men and brought the sacrifice – a worthy and acceptable fragrance before God and said, “IT IS FINISHED!” that was the victory won for all men!

A thousand poems and rhymes will never be fit enough to describe the awesome sacrifice that saw God’s love spread on the cross, redeeming man, turning a woeful sinner to a joyful believer, bridging the gap between the condemned and the Father, breaking the chains and bonds over the neck of men and giving them His liberty wherein He can cry Abba Father! Love so strong that the ancient gates of hell could not stop the rising from the grave of the embodiment of Love – Jesus.

EXTRAVAGANT GRACE,the sound that we want to hear at all times so long as we have breath in us. Boundless Grace. Extreme Grace. Unrestrained Grace. These adjectives can only magnify the term GRACE but the POWER of this GRACE can never be understood. It can never be explained in its totality. If you can explain God, then you can explain GRACE. To know Jesus is to know Grace; not knowledge by study or reading but knowledge by fellowship and communion with Him who has made this Unmerited Goodness available to all of mankind.

The people of God in times past – under the clouds, met with Grace but never lived in Grace. Only a few after the heart of God obtained a limited measure of it but we in this time because of Jesus have met with UNLIMITED GRACE – EXTRAVAGANT GRACE! We have been GRACED! God has broken us with the power of love and our brokenness did not hurt us because it was done with GRACE. We were GRACEFULLY BROKEN! We were then GRACED – adorned with power! The Power of SONSHIP and we can no longer come to His Presence afraid but we come to His Presence with Boldness because OUR HIGH PRIEST and CAPTAIN OF OUR SALVATION has made a way with His Blood spilled for us!

Can we ever cease to tell of His Grace? The adulterer experienced it. The woman at the well drank from it. Zacchaeus got a hold of it. The thief at the cross witnessed it. The devil felt it when Jesus went down to the depths of hell and set the captives free. Saul turned Paul couldn’t resist it. Today we live it. We feel it. We dwell in it. We abound in it. We talk of it. We preach it. We have received it and therefore it has made us, revived us, rescued us, freed us and lifted us from the pit where we could never have come out of into HIS GLORIOUS LIGHT!

I mourn for those who have never had it. I feel for those who have rejected it. I am grieved deep within for those who walked away from it. I pity those who have lost sight of it. I cry for those who have misused it. For those who have trampled and trodden underfoot this MATCHLESS GRACE, oh what sorer punishment awaits you! I compel you today to come receive this GRACE while you may. It is still free as ever. It is still available. It is still unlimited. Come and Experience that GRACE that transformed men from PRODIGAL SONS to MANIFESTING SONS. Come and get a load of the GOODNESS of GOD and THE GLORIOUS RICHES IN CHRIST that endures for all eternity. Come for all things are now ready! No matter who you are! No matter what you’ve done! No matter where you’ve been! No matter what they’ve said! No matter the weight of that sin! No matter the voice of condemnation that keeps ringing in your ears! No matter! No matter!! No matter!!! No matter WHAT!!! COME!!!

COME RECEIVE EXTRAVAGANT GRACE!!!