In man’s conformation to a mistaken image likened to that of
creeping brute beasts that live after their natural senses, he
forsakes His glorious form in the likeness of the immortal and
only true God. In man’s new state derived from His
transgression, He becomes a slave to sin and corruption. Having
His mind now set on the creation below and neglecting the
creator above, He becomes reprobate having a nature governed by
lust and covetousness. Having a nature bound to the corruption
in this visible material world and governed by the power of
lust, man’s darkened hearts now becomes an endless font for
iniquity, from which wells up the wicked thoughts and
imaginations; name them, jealousies, hate, lust, thefts, pride,
gossips, gluttony etc. This endless flow of iniquity from
within man living the life out of His carnally derived state is
what defiles man’s conscience before God, rendering Him
powerless. Truly speaking, God never drives a man from His
presence, neither does God ever deny us the totality of who
He is, the thing that denies man the access to the fullness
of God’s glory is His own sense of unworthiness through a
defiled conscience.
Why do men roll on their beds, never being able to find a sense
of wholeness or completeness so to say? There is constant
turmoil within a man because of His carnal insatiable lustful
state; like a desert that is never satisfied with water, or a
grave that is never satisfied, or a barren womb that
continuously receives, He can never have a sense of satisfaction
and contentment. He goes on lusting and wanting never able to
find peace.
These verses in Proverbs, show man’s insatiable state:
|
Proverbs 30:15-16 The horseleach hath two daughters,
crying, Give, give. There are three things
that are never satisfied, yea, four things
say not, It is enough: 16 The grave; and
the barren womb; the earth that is not filled
with water; and the fire that saith not, It
is enough |
Using the story of the maniac of the Gadarenes, we intend to use
this write-up to reveal the work of salvation that God has
brought to light from the days the gospel has been preached in
the days of Jesus. The good news of salvation has been preached
to all creatures under heaven so that they can all ascend back
to their rightful place of glory. The deliverance of the
man from the Gadarenes, is a spiritual parable with a
powerful message on the work which God is performing on the
earth today, and it confirms our faith in Him that we shall be
as Him as He appears.
I receive a couple of mails from wonderful brethren who desire
some more explanation on some of the write-ups we make, so I
will quickly lay some foundation before going on to the message.
We should always remember that the Testimonies of Jesus are
prophetic by nature. God has only one thing in mind, which is to
save all men and gather them in the kingdom of His dear son,
nothing more. The very works of Jesus recorded in the gospels of
Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, were all programmed from the
foundation of this world to be used as types or shadows of the
good works of God through His Son throughout eternity.
When we see a shadow, we are not seeing the real thing but a
pointer or evidence of the real thing. The works Jesus did in
the days of His flesh ministry are still being done today and
will continue throughout eternity through the same spirit that
worked through Jesus. Always remember there is a natural and
spiritual eyes view of the works of God, though the spiritual
view will always be the greater and more important one. The
spiritual view of the works of Jesus reveals works of God done
in His eternal realm, these works are profitable not only in
this present age but also in the ages to come, they point to the
kingdom of God and His never fading glory. The works that He did
in this natural realm causes us to discern by the spirit the
true spiritual works that is being performed in the spirit.
These works like healing the blind, the deaf, delivering the
demon oppressed and raising the dead are still being done to
this day, but more importantly in the spiritual sense so that
the blind that do not see the truth now see truth shining from
the face of Jesus and live. The deaf who could not hear or
discern the truth now hear the truth and are healed. The dumb
whose tongue was tied up out of unbelief now speaks with the
voice of belief as He is healed by the Lord.
Reading on the works of Jesus without spiritual insight is like
listening to parables without truly getting desired edification.
Jesus says in Matthew 13:15 that the multitudes hear Him
speak in parables, meaning they were not getting the true
message was trying to pass to them.
|
Matthew 13:15 For this people's heart is waxed
gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their
eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should
see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and
should understand with their heart, and should be
converted, and I should heal them. |
Healing come by hearing what the spirit has to say, not what our
carnal mind says; the spirit reveals the deep thoughts of God
and illuminates our paths unto eternal life. On the other hand,
understanding derived from our carnal faculties darkens the path
of man, leading Him unto, misery and death. Man can be converted
or translated from His impoverished state of flesh and blood
only as His spiritual faculties are opened up to receive from
God. Faith unto life comes by hearing, so we ought to listen to
what God is communicating to humanity through the testimonies of
Jesus. Truth is pure revelation that comes from above; it
reveals the true living God and our part in Him, something man
has totally forgotten.
A clear picture of the work of God, is to revive the dead and
cause them to live again. The dead are those annihilated from
the loving presence of God in their sense of sins and
trespasses, in this state man loses all consciousness of His
true perfect self in the image of the living God. The physically
dead have no conscious knowledge of the truth; they are buried
underneath the earth and covered in thick darkness. They do not
hear, they do not see, they can not taste, they can not speak,
they can not walk, they can not feel. All the dead have is the
power of the grave and destruction reigning over their bodies.
Worms feed on them unhindered and their bodies ooze with the
stench of decomposition and their appearance is constantly
marred.
All these describe the state of humanity in its ignorance; it
describes man buried in His carnal sense of existence. Man in
His ignorant state does not see God nor does He hear the loving
kindness of God. All that mortal man sees is vanity, otherwise
known as false images and idols that are not God. In His heart,
man is led astray by these idols only to drown into the unending
depths of the pool of destruction. Humanity stinks with madness,
wickedness and all forms of fruits derived from imperfection,
because the hearts and mind are set on images that are not God.
When the spirit of Christ moves to resurrect man from the dead,
He does this by causing a reawaken to the reality of Himself in
the celestial glory of the living God.
Using the eyes of the spirit, let us examine the deliverance of
the maniac from the Gadarenes (Luke 8:26-39). This
message gives us rich insight into the work of deliverance God
is performing on man today.
|
Luke 8:26-39 26 Then they sailed to the country of
the Gadarenes, which is opposite Galilee. 27 And
when He stepped out on the land,
there met Him a certain man
from the city who had demons for a long time.
And he wore no clothes,
nor did he live in a house but in the tombs.
28 When he saw Jesus, he cried out, fell down before
Him, and with a loud voice said, "What have I to do with You, Jesus, Son of the Most High God?
I beg You, do not torment me!" 29 For He had
commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man.
For it had often seized him, and he was kept
under guard, bound with chains and shackles; and he
broke the bonds and was driven by the demon into the
wilderness. 30 Jesus asked him,
saying, "What is your name?" And he said,
"Legion," because many
demons had entered him. 31 And they
begged Him that He would not command them to go out
into the abyss. 32 Now a
herd of many swine was feeding there on the
mountain. And they begged Him that He
would permit them to enter them. And He permitted
them. 33 Then the demons
went out of the man and entered the swine, and the
herd ran violently down the steep place into the
lake and drowned. 34 When those who fed
them saw what had happened, they fled and told it in
the city and in the country. 35 Then they went out
to see what had happened, and came to Jesus, and
found the man from whom the
demons had departed, sitting at the feet of Jesus,
clothed and in his right mind. And they
were afraid. 36 They also who had seen it told them
by what means he who had been demon-possessed was
healed. 37 Then the whole multitude of the
surrounding region of the Gadarenes asked Him to
depart from them, for they were seized with great
fear. And He got into the boat and returned. 38 Now
the man from whom the demons had departed begged Him
that he might be with Him. But Jesus sent him away,
saying, 39 "Return to
your own house, and tell what great things God has
done for you." And he went his way and proclaimed
throughout the whole city what great things Jesus
had done for him. |
That mad man of the Gadarenes represents man in His lowered
state after losing His glorious incorruptible and immortal state
to that of corruptible and mortal man of the earth. The troubled
and tormented state of the insane man represents the state of
man as He is tossed back and forth by fear, uncertainty,
unbraided lusts and desires. In His desire to immortalize the
mortal which he formed for himself in the ignorance of His
heart, He finds neither rest nor satisfaction for His soul.
Spiritually speaking, any man who lives after the cursed Adam
life, which represents life empowered by the carnal mind, is
living that same chaotic life of the maniac of the Gadarenes. In
His insanity he loses track of His own true self in the
perfection and likeness of God and is now controlled by the
imaginary forces governed by the principalities of this Dark
Age.
The nakedness
of the man of the gadarenes is the powerlessness and sense of
unworthiness state in which man finds Himself as he is lured
away by the glories of this outer world. As we read earlier on,
that sense of nakedness is derived from the defiled conscious of
man living the Adam experience; it points to man without the
covering of God’s glory or as Paul puts it, one who is absent
from the Lord. Living a life in nakedness is living in spiritual
shame, which provokes loss of man’s access to the living God. It
is this sense of nakedness that causes man to slip away from the
fruitfulness of His true spiritual abiding place into a
spiritual wilderness laden with thorns and thistles representing
utter spiritual bareness.
The demons or forces of darkness often drove this Maniac into
the wilderness, representing unbelief [Luke
8:29].
The wilderness is the spiritual environment of those annihilated
from the life of God; it talks about unfruitfulness, torment and
anguish of soul; an abyss realm, where man finds no rest for His
soul. The wilderness can also be likened to a spiritual realm
where those who rebel against God languish in death, being
caught of from the only source.
The parable of Adam reveals how man is lowered from His glorious
state. He is cast out of God's Garden of abundance and peace
into a wilderness place where He loses His prosperity and
unlimited faith towards the living God. The secret to Adam’s
ability to prosper and bear fruit was in His oneness with the
living God, so that like Christ He could say I and the Father
are one. This sacred reality is however lost in His shift from
the celestial and spiritual image of the living God to that of
the beast of the earth beneath (serpent).
By now we know that the serpent that tempted Adam is simply the
carnal mind of man which is earth bound. The mind of mortal men
is actually one and the same thing with the mind of Satan. Jesus
confirms this when He says: “get thee behind me Satan,
for you do not mind the things of God but that which
is of men”. So we can picture the maniac as man who is
driven into the wilderness of unbelief torment by the influence
of satanic forces that govern this present outer world of men.
These Satanic spiritual forces are the collective reasoning of
men in this age, which is totally ignorant of the things that
pertain to God and His invisible kingdom.
The bible records that the maniac dwelt among tombs because he
had no house of His own [Luke
8:27].
His dwelling among tombs signifies His dwelling or communion
with the dead. The dead represents those who are not enlightened
with the true knowledge of God, the book of psalms says clearly
that the dead cannot praise God. The dead are cut off from the
life of God and are therefore destitute and Fatherless upon the
earth. The world today is just a big spiritual graveyard, which
is home to the dead because this world does not know God. The
stench of Jealousy, lust, hate, murder etc is characteristics of
this world void of God's knowledge. Jesus who represents the
product of the God’s kingdom confirms this when He says the
world does not know God, but He has known Him. As long as a man
continues walking in the vanity of His carnal imaginations which
is set on a temporal physical world, He cannot know God [John
17:25]. If we true desire to see life we must discern the
deadness of the systems of men and their systems of religion and
begin to be separate from them.
The maniac was also known for His violent nature, it was so
severe that even chains from men could not bind this man, when
they bound him up, he would simply break up the chains [Luke
8:29].
This is the state of man in this present world; man’s methods
aimed at taming humanity will never work because they are trying
to solve the problem with the problem; they use wisdom fetched
from the carnal faculties and try to perfect the carnal man.
Some have sought peace, security, good health over the years but
they have simply earned the opposite. Some men truly desiring to
please God, to love His name and to be able to manifest that
same love to others have always fallen short of their inner
yearnings to walk worthily of His name. In search for true
peace, satisfaction and fulfillment, we can attest to the fact
that we have tried many things but they never work. We have all
tried gathering material riches unto ourselves, religious
participation or associations with men like “marriages,
courtship, social groups etc”.
The various methods which we try out in order to get some peace
and sense of purpose may seem to work initially but the beastly
insatiable nature arises again within us and breaks up the
chains and drives us strait into the wilderness once more. How
many have tried to stop smoking, drinking or any other bad habit
only to discover they are worse of. Self will and human
counseling will only tame the beast within for a moment, after
which it comes forth again with greater momentum. True complete
Healing that endures can in no way come from the traditional
Church establishments, no matter the denominations nor will it
come from association with men.
Moralistic procedures of men administered through Governments,
religious systems and all forms of societies have tried to tame
man, all to no avail. The more they invent new measures or
invent new things to tame the violent beastly nature of mortal
man the more they realize that they are helpless. Hate, wars,
disagreements, jealousies, murders, sicknesses and diseases and
many other ills seen in mortal man seems to always grow and
increase in this world no matter the sophistication man seems to
attain to. Men have met over the years and decided to come under
the umbrella of a body called the United Nations in an effort to
promote peace and stability among the nations of the earth, but
we only see more and more wars and conflicts. Scientist bring
out more and more newly invented medication to get eradicate
diseases and other forms of ailment only to discover new ones
like aids and mad cow syndrome popping up. The more man applies
His chains to tame man and His waywardness the more He realizes
how helpless He is.
In the midst of all this, to realize true healing and
deliverance, we must firstly recognize the Christ, the true
creature of God. On the inside of the man from the Gadarenes was
that sane part of Him that was able to recognize the son of the
Living God even though He was overcome by that overwhelming
force of the demons collectively called legion. In the same
vein, many people recognize the name of the Lord but very few
are able to come to the place where they know they are pleasing
Him, this inability to please God is the source of sadness and
frustration for many brethren today, but God is about to give us
keys for our deliverance this very moment.
The demons possessing the maniac were many and it talks of all
the innumerable imperfections that emanates from unregenerate
man. Gossip, competition, jealousy, pride, slandering, lust,
gluttony, name all the sicknesses, fear, paranoid symptoms,
drunkenness, spiritual pride and all the imperfect and carnal
manifestations you can think of are traits of an imperfect man.
This represents the uncountable number of imperfections of flesh
and blood.
As long as man lives a life after the flesh, He is considered
unclean and imperfect. Living after the flesh signifies walking
after understanding derived from the natural carnal man who
lives in relation to this outer world of appearances. It leads
to death because it causes a loss of the knowledge of the living
God; it also produces reprobates out of men since they lose the
perfection in God for that of mortal man. If we lack in any way
in relation to the will of God, if we manifest hate towards men,
if we do not have a love for God and His eternal purposes we
fall into this category of that Madman. Flesh and blood cannot
inherit the kingdom, it inherits the wilderness places and the
grave so we should not expect that some sort of invention from
man can ever heal it, it simply cannot be cured. Let us
not deceive ourselves but come to the mirror of the spirit to
observe ourselves, If we look in the mirror of the spirit and we
see any image other than that of the Christ who is in the image
of the living God we are beholding the image of a maniac.
God is speaking to His sons in this hour; he is saying: “seize
from mortal man and reunite with the spirit man (Christ Jesus) [Isaiah
2:22] and you will experience the desired liberation which
you seek. It is only in submitting to the spirit that we can
really be delivered, and therefore taste of this great
salvation. Like the maniac, we have to firstly discern and
recognize the Christ and worship at His feet as the mad man did.
There were many mad men in Israel then but this particular one
discerned and then worshipped at the feet of the Lord, He
recognized the son of the living God. Recognition and
discernment of the son of is the first important step to our
deliverance. Recognition of the Christ within, not a Christ
somewhere in the sky is the foundation upon which our salvation
can be built.
This recognition comes from above from the Father the same way
he revealed this mystery to Peter. Peter had recognized the
identity of Christ Jesus as the son of the living God who had
been from the beginning with the Father; he had received this
revelation from God. Let us never think that if Jesus were here
today you could just recognize Him for whom he truly was, it
comes by revelation, and it is a gift from God that serves as a
master key to unlock every gate that has denied us entrance into
God’s kingdom.
The bible records that the maniac worshipped Jesus and received
His deliverance in the process. One may ask how we can worship
God. Is it by going to church? Is it by fasting for days without
eating? Is it by giving offerings and paying tithes? Is it by
following dressing codes, like covering our head with veils or
wearing long skirts? Is it by being skilled in the letters of
the bible and in the doctrines of men or to be identified to
visible structures on the earth? The answer to all of those
questions is a BIG NO.
We worship God by firstly recognizing the Christ on the inside
of us and further submitting to Him. Christ is spirit and those
that worship Him must worship him in spirit and in truth. The
term spirit and truth simply identifies what Christ the son of
the living God stands for. He is the spirit (2Corinthians
3:17), He is the truth (John 4:6), conforming
ourselves unto the Christ within and maintain ourselves in Him
is the only true worship pleasing to God. Worshiping God also
means recognition of that same spirit in all men and referencing
it, this is all God requires of us, he delights in our living in
truth.
Acquiring true perfection in Christ, means spiritually ascending
God’s holy hill, this ascension occurs as we leave off the flesh
and blood identity to be conformed back to the spirit man on the
inside. Then we can meet the Lord and unite in one with Him,
causing deliverance from that old corruptible nature into that
incorruptible body of the son of the living God.
Using this diagram below, I want demonstrate that mysterious
eternal work that God intends to communicate to those who have
ears to perceive what he is doing in this hour.
As the maniac received His deliverance, Jesus sent out the evil
spirits that had possessed the madman into a heard of swine that
were feeding at the foot of the mountain. On entering the pigs,
they rushed down a steep path into the sea where there where
drowned and killed. The Holy Spirit did not place that scene in
the bible for nothing; God has a deep message that should serve
as a note of caution to men as the word of truth goes forth.
We discern and understand God's thoughts from the things that
are made. When we see animals, we actually have a spiritual
insight into the state of a man. Jesus was called Lamb of God
for His innocence and His gentleness; He was called the Lion of
the tribe of Judah because He warred against and overcame the
powers of darkness and reigns as king. The scribes and Pharisees
who opposed Jesus were likened to serpents because of their
unrefined nature. So when we read about those pigs feeding at
the feet of the mountain in Luke 8:32, God is revealing a
category of men here. The pigs at the foot of the mountain
feeding are pointers to carnality of men that mind earthly
things and refuse to behold the heavenly vision of the Lord.
Jesus once said cast not your pearls to pigs least they trample
on it and fight you [Matthew 7:6].
What Jesus meant is that do not bother trying to convince
certain men on the precious gift and truths of His kingdom,
because they will violently try to take away you victory by
persecuting you. Pigs continually look downwards and prefer the
filthy muddy places, they represent the flesh and blood
consciousness of man which does not value nor accept the truth
but rather prefers the lie. Wash a pig and I can assure you, it
will back to its mud puddle in a mater of time, this are men who
rebel against the truth by refusing to conform themselves back
to their true spiritual form in God but prefer to hang out in
the deceit of flesh and blood or mortal man.
We can see what happened to the pigs, they were driven down a
slippery slope into the sea where they perished. Interpreting
the drowning of the pigs, on one hand, as we unite with
the Lord to become one spirit, every trace of carnality (pigs)
in us is totally destroyed so that we can walk in the totality
of the spiritual nature of Christ. In this spiritual
consciousness, wholesomeness is restored so that we can walk in
the full glory of the son of God who is perfect and in the image
of the true and invisible God. In this new realization in
Christ, the shaft of the endless font of iniquity is now sealed.
All this occurs as we regain our true incorruptible and immortal
attributes in Christ. As long as this shaft in mortal man is
sealed and locked we begin to rule and reign in Christ because
the deceiver who is the devil will be no more, he has nothing to
accuse you with. Like Jesus we can say the prince of the world
cometh and He finds nothing in me.
On the other hand,
we can say the sea represents the deep or the bottomless pit
that humanity is drowning in; it is the ever-sinking realm of
unbelief that man in His darkened state finds Himself perishing
in. This is the destruction that awaits man, as He is foolish
lured away from the knowledge of the true and invisible God to
the glories of this world which Paul likens to riches in a
letter to Timothy [1Timothy 6:9-10]. The further you sink
down, the further you move away from the light. It is like being
caught off from your source of life and the source of your joy.
Jonah is an example of those who rebel against God’s word and go
down into the pit of destruction and end up being bound in the
prison house of death.
The whole world is continuously sinking and perishing in that
pit of destruction, but thank God for His love towards the sons
of men. All who come to Jesus, and unite in one with Him will
not perish but have eternal life. They shall be lifted up from
the gates of death into the gates of life in the Heavenly
Jerusalem upon Zion. (JOHN 3:13-17)
Destruction is the path of all who do not grow spiritually in
Christ; this is the consequence of not hearkening to the call in
this hour. If a man disobeys God, it is His unbelief that casts
Him down the slippery paths that lead unto destruction (PSALMS
73:18 18). It does not however change who you are in
relation to God and His kingdom it does not change the fact that
you are a son of the living God; you will only suffer because of
rebellion towards God until you decide as Jonah did to obey God.
The call is telling all the inhabitants of this world to come to
mount Zion and submit themselves to the Lord. In submitting
ourselves we are purge and delivered from a corruptible carnal
nature and elevated into new life by the Lord.
When man rejects the revelation truth of our Lord Jesus He is
given the lie and slips into destruction, Paul talks about this
in Romans 1. Brethren mark these words of Paul in
Romans Chapter 1; they are very revealing and important.
When man rejects the revelation truth coming forth from the
Lord, He is overtaken by the lie; He is likened to the reprobate
mind which goes down the slippery path in to destruction. God
doesn't have to come down from heaven to strike anyone with
thunder, like Paul writes those who sow to the flesh will reap
death [Galatians 6:8]. Greater unbelief is the portion of
those who do not submit themselves to Christ. It is either we
are being saved in Christ Jesus or we are perishing in the
ignorance of our human existence, there is no place in between;
we are either hot in Him or cold. It is like climbing a
mountain, no one gets halfway and stays there; you must be
either ascending into life or descending into the pit of utter
ignorance.
On submitting Himself to Christ, and consequently receiving His
healing, the maniac who was once naked was found clothed by the
villagers [Luke 8:35]. This signifies that, the glorious
covering of God that was lost in Adam’s transgression is
restored. This is an extremely high sacred consciousness that
those who are delivered attain to, so that they lose all self
knowledge but walk in Christ consciousness. Without this
covering no man can approach the Father, because of shame this
is the reality of those who live according to the flesh. For
more insight on the covering of the saints, Read the article
titled: RECLAIMING OUR LIGHT GARMENTS.
The once mad man who was tossed to and fro by the influence of
the evil spirits was now at peace at the feet of Jesus in His
right senses. The man now possesses the mind of Christ and can
boldly confessing His equality and oneness with God. Any other
reasoning will not stand the test of time, for there is only one
who lives, the Lord of Host is name. With that sound mind in
Christ He can now be at peace knowing fully well that all that
the Father has and is are His. Non more can he be tossed to and
fro by the uncountable voices of unbelief that govern the
kingdoms of mortal men because He remains firm in the bosom of
the Father. Brethren our heavenly Father has given us a sound
mind of love, power, boldness and unlimited faith once more,
every thing that the thief has robbed us off is being restored.
2Timothy 1:7 For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but
of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.
One may ask, what were we robbed of? We were robbed of the
conscious knowledge of our oneness with the Father; as a result
we felt an infinite sense of separation in our mind from the
living God.
In times past the students will gather at the feet of the
teacher to learn from Him. So is it on Zion, we are constantly
illuminated and taught on the things that pertain to life. The
act of submission and discipleship is demonstrated in the
maniac’s position at the feet of Jesus [Luke 8:35]. We
all must submit ourselves to the Christ as we hear this call; it
is in submitting to Christ that we are set free. When He arises
and reigns in our hearts, in our thoughts and in every aspect of
our lives then we are healed. He must reign in us till every
thing in us is subject to Him, after which death the greatest
enemy is destroyed because in Him there is no darkness. This is
all about uniting in one with the mind of the spirit in what
Paul calls a conformation unto Christ no more a conformation
unto this world.
Jesus told the man to go home after He had finished His work of
deliverance upon Him.
The man who was once homeless and abandoned, all alone in this
world and left to drift aimlessly among the graveyards now
remembered He had a Home and a family [Luke 8:26]. All
that sense of being orphaned and alone in this world was no
more. That home and family is none other than the body of Christ
that spans all eternity. As we awaken we discover a new loving
family both in heaven and on earth all united in the bond of
unbreakable unity and love. No more will we ever feel abandoned
or neglected because many are they that are with us in the same
household than there is in this dark world.
Wishing you abundant peace and love
Trevor Eghagha
