by Pastor Andrew Morgridge
To every product there is a manual. It is because the maker wants you the buyer to understand how not to abuse the product you bought with your money. And this cuts across everything in life—jobs, travelling, even the Faith; everything has a manual.
Christianity is all about Jesus, and I state emphatically that nobody gets to heaven that does not look like Jesus: the Bible says in Daniel 7:13, “ I saw in the night visions, and, behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before him.”
Jesus is the standard—our example, as Romans 8:29-30 says, “For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified.” To be conformed is to be fashioned like unto something, for example, a prototype (Strong’s Greek Concordance).
So dear reader, there is a conforming to His image that we must all seek, beyond salvation—being born again; and happens by understanding the various aspects of Jesus’ life and ministry, and by imbibing them.
When Jesus was born, wise men came to meet Him as accounted in Matthew 2:1-11. Most times we mix it up; we have been told that it was in the manger that wise men went to meet Him. But if you read the two accounts in Matthew 2:1-11 and Luke 2:7-18 you would see that it was shepherds that went to the manger and it was wise men that went to Jesus’ house, but the wise men did not go and meet baby Jesus they went to meet young boy Jesus. I don’t know where people see wise men giving baby Jesus gifts in a manger. It’s not in the Bible. You can check this out yourself. The wise men met Jesus in His house as a young boy and gave Him three gifts. First they gave Him gold, then they gave Him frankincense and then they gave Him myrrh. These three things were the things that Jesus ran with all His life. Every leader must possess these three things in order to succeed.
Gold represents kingship, sovereignty. Kings possess a great amount of gold in wealth and in attire. They have crowns that are beautiful with jewels, gold and diamonds. In their palaces, everywhere is shiny. The President of the United States, Donald Trump, even when they were not in congress, was bathing in a gold bathroom. In the Trump Tower, everywhere is full of gold. But gold does not just speak of royalty alone, it speaks of purity. Gold is pure. It is passed through fire until it is free from impurities. That’s why God told the priests, “You must be pure.” And to show them that they must be pure God put gold all over the temple – the candlestick, the table of showbread. Because He wanted them to always know that they should be pure (See Exodus 28). A leader is a king, so it was no mistake that the wise men gave Jesus gold—that is the ministry of kingship; and Jesus was pure (2 Corinthians 5:21).
It also speaks of the heart that is always seeking to know and do the will of God. David is the example He gave us: “And when he had removed him, he raised up unto them David to be their king; to whom also he gave testimony, and said, I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after mine own heart, which shall fulfil all my will. Of this man’s seed hath God according to his promise raised unto Israel a Saviour, Jesus:”
Note the word ‘removed’ as He described the offspring of Saul for David; it is to point to us the self willed nature of Saul, who twice disobeyed God to first please the people and secondly to please himself. (See 1 Samuel 15).
The next thing is the frankincense; which represents the priestly ministry of Jesus. Jesus was a priest; there is no leader that would not be a priest. The gentleness of a shepherd must be in a leader. Isaiah 40:11 says, “He shall feed his flock like a shepherd: he shall gather the lambs with his arm, and carry them in his bosom, and shall gently lead those that are with young.” A leader would know everybody in his flock. He would deal with the strong ones differently. He would treat the sick ones very well. He would gently carry the young babies on his side because they cannot run as fast as their mothers and fathers. That’s why you see in some pictures of Jesus that He’s carrying a lamb.
The priest is the one that carries the burdens of people to God. And there is nobody who calls himself a leader that would lord it over his flock. That is what the Bible calls Nicolaitan spirit. Jesus spoke about it in Revelation 2 where He said, “I hate the deeds of the nicolaitans.” Nicolaitan is a word that comes from two Greek words: Nico and Loas. Nico means to oppress, conquer. Loas means laity. In other words, don’t conquer the laity, don’t oppress those under you. Love them, treat them kindly. A leader who can do this is one who is dead to himself.
Also the life of the priest must reflect PURITY—the purity seen in gold. The cap on the head of a priest has a gold plate with the inscription: HOLINESS UNTO THE LORD.
When you see someone, it is the head you’d notice first, for the purpose of identification. Holiness is what God wants people to see in you first.
Secondly, on the hem of the priest’s garment there are embroidered pomegranates (very sweet fruit) and golden bells interspaced. Bells make nose to draw attention—again God saying “I want people to see your sweet life.” IS THAT REALLY YOU?
In the world of “Lord give me, give me, give me…” are you a priest? Priests intercede between man and God. That’s the bulk of their prayers. Is that you, especially as God has said, He wants Israel (all of us) to be priests: “And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation. These are the words which thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel.” Exodus 19:6.
This is also reiterated in 1 Peter 2:9-11 which says, “But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light: Which in time past were not a people, but are now the people of God: which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy.”
That was the reason for the third gift, Myrrh, that was given to Jesus. Myrrh is a symbol of death. It was used for embalming. It also speaks about the prophetic anointing, because true prophets don’t care about the world. Every prophet in the Bible lived outside the town and dressed differently. For example, Prophet Isaiah wore sackcloth all his life. It’s a symbol of mourning, a symbol of death. So prophets can identify with myrrh. In fact, it was the ointment that was used to embalm dead people so their bodies don’t smell. God told Jeremiah to remove the sackcloth from his body and walk naked for three years. Only somebody dead to himself can do that. See Isaiah 20:2-3 “At the same time spake the LORD by Isaiah the son of Amoz, saying, Go and loose the sackcloth from off thy loins, and put off thy shoe from thy foot. And he did so, walking naked and barefoot. And the LORD said, Like as my servant Isaiah hath walked naked and barefoot three years for a sign and wonder upon Egypt and upon Ethiopia”
Jeremiah 8:21-22 says, “For the hurt of the daughter of my people am I hurt; I am black; astonishment hath taken hold on me. Is there no balm in Gilead; is there no physician there? why then is not the health of the daughter of my people recovered?”
IS THAT YOU—can your lifestyle match that of the prophets? It must if you say you are patterned after Jesus Christ.
Do you think that dying on the Cross was easy for Jesus to do? He could do it because He was already dead to what He liked. In Gethsemane, Jesus prayed, “Lord, if it’s possible take this cup of death away from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done.” Jesus knew what was coming up… how He would be beaten, nailed to the cross and given vinegar to drink for water. He knew they would wear Him a crown of thorns that would pierce Him and cause blood to flow out. He knew all that would be done to Him, yet He said, “I am going to do it.”
In Matthew 16 when Peter tried to dissuade Jesus from going to die for the world, Jesus said, “Peter, you’re behaving like Satan. Get thee behind Me!” Jesus called His friend Satan because he was speaking about Him not doing what God called Him to do.
In closing, are you dead to yourself? Christians are supposed to be! As Galatians 2:20 says, “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.”
The standard is Jesus; He said, John 5:19 and 30: “. . . The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do: for what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise. . . I can of mine own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge: and my judgment is just; because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me.”
Is that you? Are you displaying Jesus? Food for thought, for those who want to make heaven. Nobody gets to heaven that does not look like Jesus. 1 John 3:1-3 says: “Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not. Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure.”
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