We continue with our prophetic Psalm, Psalm 49! The Lord says of the despotic rulers in the Land;
For the redemption of their souls is costly, And it shall cease forever Psalms 49:8 NKJV
Who are these people who the Psalmist speaks about? They are the oppressors in the church and in the Institutions of the Land.
They are people who boast in their wealth and in their positions of power.
They can’t go through a single negotiation, debate or argument without asking, “Do you know who I am?”
Please who are you Mr High and Mighty? Who are you when the Lord says the redemption of your soul is more costly than your amassed wealth can buy?
You have suddenly become nobody!
Hear us and give ear, all those who think they hold Nigeria captive and boast in their riches. Those who think they can get away with anything because of their wealth or their position. Those who amass wealth and fill their war chest with instruments of cruelty. Who sabotage the war against insecurity in the land to line their pockets with more blood money.
Those who forge certificates to secure power and buy justice to escape consequences, those who purchase political appointments and oppress those who disagree with them. Those who use their ill gotten wealth to fight and pervert the system that protects the weak and to further disempower the disenfranchised.
Today, your folly is made known, ‘all the money in the world’ cannot buy life nor escape the grave. You may be about to buy the conscience of mortal judges but never the verdict of He Who alone dwells in unapproachable fire.
This is the word of the Lord and His verdict on the behalf of His righteous people;
Only rebel not ye against the LORD, neither fear ye the people of the land; for they are bread for us: their defence is departed from them, and the LORD is with us: fear them not. Numbers 14:9 KJV
Hallelujah!
We declare; Their defence has departed from them and they have now become food for us; we will take back the high places, and we will repossess this land for the kingdom and hoist the flag of God over it once again.
Let their redemption be costly and their defence depart forever.
Today, we look at an old message but with new insights. The old message is from yesterday’s verses for meditation and prayer. In those verses, we learnt what tools and weapons the Lord has given us – wisdom and understanding – that we may disciple the nations.Today, the verses of scripture that follow on the heels of yesterday’s verses from our Key Psalm, Psalm 49, reveals new insights on what wisdom and understanding provide for us.
⁵Why should I fear in the days of evil, when the iniquity at my heels surrounds me? ⁶Those who trust in their wealth And boast in the multitude of their riches, ⁷None of them can by any means redeem his brother, Nor give to God a ransom for him Psalms 49:5-7
Why is the Psalmist not afraid? What is the source of his confidence? To answer this, we may need to read from the verses we meditated on yesterday, from 3 or 4, this way we see the context of the Psalmist. Let’s read it, this time from The Message Translation;
I fine-tuned my ear to the sayings of the wise, I solve life’s riddle with the help of a harp. So why should I fear in bad times, hemmed in by enemy malice? Psalm 49:4-5 MSG
You see that? The source of the Psalmist confidence is the defense that wisdom gives. He contrasts this with the folly of the rich who put their confidence in their wealth.
As the scripture says,
For wisdom is a defense as money is a defense, But the excellence of knowledge is that wisdom gives life to those who have it. Ecclesiastes 7:12
Another scripture says,
Wisdom is better than weapons of war…” Ecclesiastics 9:18a
So, why do people pursue material wealth instead of wisdom since it is evidently of more value?
Well, for starters, the answer is in what they can spend it on. Wisdom cannot be spent on frivolities like worldly pleasures unlike ‘filthy lucre’. But beyond that, people chase after fleeting riches rather than wisdom because the price of money is cheaper than the price of wisdom. You only need to read the entire 28th chapter of the book of Job to confirm this.
Here is a snipet of what that chapter says;
No mention shall be made of coral or quartz, For the price of wisdom is above rubies. Job 28:18
Why pursue money that cannot buy wisdom, true defense and grant you life beyond the grave when you can pursue wisdom and have it all?
¹⁶[Wisdom] is more precious than rubies, And all the things you may desire cannot compare with her. ¹⁷Length of days is in her right hand, In her left hand riches and honor. ¹⁸She is a tree of life to those who take hold of her, and happy are all who retain her. Proverbs 3:18
What is the final verdict of the Psalmist? It is very simply and clear;
People who have wealth but lack understanding are like the beasts that perish. Psalm 49:20 NIV
Here is our prayer for today; That we may remain fearless against those whose only defense is material. May we never trust in fleeting riches. May the Lord grant us to reap the rewards of wisdom that transcends material possession and what money can buy. May we not lack understanding in the midst of plenty least we die like the beast that perishes.
Recently, a woman of God received a vision from God for me. She saw that the Lord had given my wife and I a set of twins. She saw me holding them and rejoicing, and that my wife was surrounded by midwives.
I knew exactly what the vision meant. Midwives are a type of intercessors. And truly, the Lord had already given me a set of twins (through a son in the faith) their names are – Jachin and Boaz – just like the twin pillars of the temple in the scripture (1 Kings 7:21).
You might be wondering, “What have these got to do with the key Psalm we are discussing?”
A lot!
The Anchor of our Commission To us at Pagemaster, Jachin and Boaz are not just the names of the twin pillars in God’s temple they are also the twin operations in our anchor scripture for our divine commission. You might have noticed this verse as a constant on our fliers.;
Wisdom and knowledge will be the stability of your times, And the strength of salvation; The fear of the LORD is His treasure. Isaiah 33:6
Notice the relationship between wisdom and Jachin: Jachin establishes, and wisdom brings stability in troubled times.
Likewise, in Boaz there is strength, and by knowledge is the strength of our salvation.
Operations of the Spirit These two pillars (or anchor) are also the same operations of the Spirit in the Key Psalm that the Lord gave us in the prophetic revelation which I shared yesterday.
Let’s dig in a little more.
³ My mouth shall speak wisdom, and the meditation of my heart shall give understanding. ⁴ I will incline my ear to a proverb; I will disclose my dark saying on the harp. Psalms 49:2-4
We have an assignment from God and He has graciously equipped us with these tools of wisdom and understanding. These are instructional gifts, to teach the people and to disciple the nations.
God truly has given us Psalms 49 as a key of authority and of the kingdom, it is a key to open doors of glory and shut doors of darkness. With this key, our apostolic community will navigate our commission and wage a good warfare.
Yesterday we saw our sphere of authority – the church and the world – in the first two verses of that Psalm, today we see our God-given tools and weapons of war for that assignment.
If we are going to be a voice to the church and to the corporate world, we will need distinct approaches tailored for each. This Psalm gives us the Keys of the Kingdom to unlock the approaches needed.
The first approach is “speaking wisdom and understanding.” The second approach is “proverbs and disclosing dark sayings.”
Verse 3 and 4 are two sides of the same coin. One speaks of an overt operation of the Spirit and the other speaks of a covert operation of the Spirit. Wisdom and understanding are overt, but proverbs and dark sayings are covert. One speaks directly while the other speaks indirectly.
Our overt operations are targeted at spiritually inclined audiences and our covert operations towards those who are otherwise inclined.
I want you to note here that these instructions and revelation coming to us from Psalms 49 are not new, they are confirmations and elaborations on what God has previously revealed to us in times past.
In this divine instruction, God is giving sphere authority to the keys of the kingdom that He has entrusted us with.
This is our prayer; That our Voice will constantly channel wisdom and understanding from heaven to earth. And that we fulfill our commission by the effective use of overt and covert operations of the Spirit.
In the past few weeks, during our Saturday evening Hour of Prayer that holds at 9pm, we have been “waging a good Warfare with the prophecies given to us”.
Last Saturday, we focused on one of such prophecies which came to me in a vision about a key scripture given to aid our direction and warfare. And I want to share the message with us in parts throughout this week.
Here is an excerpt from the vision.
On June 14, 2021, I had a vision. In it, I saw the principalities devouring the Nigerian economy and the Nigerian government.
While escaping the hand of the first, I found myself walking and searching for my way back home, it was now dark and the roads had became like a maze with ever-changing paths. I felt lost but strangely, I also knew that I was in a dream. Then I finally came to a clear path, out of the maze-like experience. There, I met a brother and prayer warrior going for his prayer meeting. As we talked, he gave me a scripture from the Lord – Psalms 49 – to guide me out of the maze.
It is this key scripture and its inherent instructions that I want us to unravel in little bits and to take back to our prayer altars daily.
¹ Hear this, all peoples; Give ear, all inhabitants of the world, ² Both low and high, rich and poor together. Psalms 49:1-2
This prophetic psalm was directed to the “peoples” and the “inhabitants of the world.” These are two different categories of people which, on the surface, actually means Jews and Gentiles.
We see a classic example of this in the way Apostle Peter interprets Psalms 2 in the book of Acts.
Psalms 2 speaks of the rage of the “nations” and the plot of the “people” against the Anointed One, led by their “kings” and their “rulers”. Peter, speaking in Acts interprets it this way;
²⁷ “For truly against Your holy Servant Jesus, whom You anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the people of Israel, were gathered together ²⁸ to do whatever Your hand and Your purpose determined before to be done. Acts 4:27-28
On the surface, these two groups represent the Jews and the Gentiles but on a deeper level, they represent the church and the corporate world.
The first instruction to us at the Pagemaster Apostolic Centre as revealed in this key psalm therefore is; that the Lord is giving our Voice authority to instruct His Church and the Institutions of the world. Hear this, all peoples; Give ear, all inhabitants of the world,
This is therefore our prayer, to take our place of authority to become a Voice to these twin audiences in Jesus name. Amen and Amen.
I have had a vision. During the night season, I saw a vision which I can only share partly in parables.
In this vision, I had already had another vision, like a dream within a dream (so let’s label the main vision, vision 1.0, and the “dream within a dream” vision 2.0).
Vision 1.0 began with me having the memory of vision 2.0 in which I had seen a pillar (I couldn’t tell if the pillar was made of bronze or of gold). In that dream, the interpretation was supernaturally given to me, that the pillar signified a 40 year time span.
As I stood in vision 1.0, thinking about vision 2.0, my wife came along. We began taking a walk and then we saw David the shepherd. We stopped to greet him, and since my wife had a previous working relationship with him, he decided to show my wife a pamphlet detailing his career path. The pamphlet had some drawings on them. It was designed to be a simple publication and nothing more, but the Lord had other intentions for it. My wife liked the fact that the pamphlet was more pictorial than text-based, so she showed it to me and asked me to have a look.
However, when I set my eyes on the images, my eyes lit up with understanding as I saw that it was not a mere pictorial pamphlet but a prophetic one. Unknown to the designer of the pamphlet, the Lord had secretly planted His own will and intent into the pamphlet to communicate a prophetic message to us. And in His mercy, He supernaturally gave me the interpretation right there in the dream.
The First Image The first image was the drawing of the Nigerian coat of arms and that tall one, King Saul, standing beside it.
As I saw the image of the Nigerian coat of arms, the Lord impressed upon my heart that the Pillar I saw in vision 2.0 was the same as this coat of arms. (Remember the pillar from vision 2.0 symbolized a 40 year time span).
I went on to tell David the shepherd; The significance of king Saul standing beside the Nigerian coat of arms (which happens to correspond to the pillar from vision 2.0 and means a 40 year time span) is that, from the time King Saul first entered office until his death will be 40 years.
The Second Image The next image was a drawing of king Saul and David. King Saul was giving a parcel or portfolio to David.
As I saw this, the Lord again impressed on me what it means so I also shared its meaning with David; this is the reflection of the expectations of men – they think King Saul will hand over to David as king, he will not.
The Third Image The third image was similar to the second image, but in reverse. It was a picture of David taking a parcel or portfolio from King Saul. This is the interpretation that was supernaturally impressed upon my heart in the dream as I spoke to the shepherd, David. I told him, the kingdom will not be handed over to him by king Saul but that he will have to take it from him. But not by force. The shepherd understands.
A Fourth Image Appears Finally, I had an open vision (vision 3.0) of a word Console (the noun not the verb) written on top of the pamphlet, no one else saw it but me, but in this vision (vision 1.0), only the shepherd David understood the meaning of the word. As I told him, he went straight to work on the vision.
Appendix: Console, as a noun, means “the control or monitoring unit of a computer, containing the keyboard or keys, switches, etc” (Dictionary.com)
The 40 year span: It is 40 years from 1983 to 2023
It felt like I was still a student on campus. In this dream, I was sharing a hostel room with a young man named Elisha. According to this dream, he was my disciple. The young man went out and stayed out late. It was later reported that he had been killed and his body found. I was very sad at this news but I was also afraid because I didn’t want the trouble of Nigerian police accusing me of anything. I finished what I was doing (perhaps exams) and went to investigate his murder. It was then I discovered from those who had seen him last, that he went to a library to read very late at night (like around 3am) but the librarians didn’t let him in. Instead of returning to somewhere safe, I was told he went to a place so far away that it was unthinkable that someone would be found going about so late at night (3am). Although the librarian later asked him to come spend the night in the library for his safety sake, and since it was already too late at night to return to the hostel, he refused their offer and left, perhaps because he was offended.
Conversations with the Pagemaster About Pleading the Blood By Adams Allison
I just read a very, very long article where a beloved brother in the faith attempted to share, to the best of his ability, reasons a believer should not and cannot plead the blood of Jesus.
For the sake of time, I will summarise His arguments below and give my rebuttal afterwards.
I will begin with what I agree with in his article and advance to what I disagree with before responding to all his points.
He says pleading the blood is a legal term.
Yes, it is a legal term. I can agree with this.
He also says pleading the blood in prayer by believers is wrong.
He is technically correct. Emphasis on the word technically.
He writes that only the High Priests could pleadthe blood both in the Old Testament and in the New Testament.
I totally disagree.
He also assumed, in his article, that pleading the blood means sheddingthe blood
Sadly, I must say this point of his is very ignorant.
He says those who plead the blood “add no extra kick to their prayers” …
This too is wrong.
My Rebuttal Let me begin by saying that the reason God hears our prayers is not because of technical accuracy but because of our faith. Yes, the prayer is wrong, (that’s the only thing the writer has correct), but the writer fails to understand why people plead the blood. It is because they believe strongly in the Person of Jesus whose blood was shed for us. It is like the woman with the issue of blood who believed in Jesus so strongly that she said to herself, “if I could only touch the helm of His garment, I will be healed” and she did and was healed. There is no provision in the covenant for healing through the cloth or the helm of anyone’s clothes but this woman was healed nevertheless when she touched His clothes. Why? JESUS gave us the answer – “Woman, YOUR FAITH has made you whole“, not His clothes but her faith. Likewise, it’s not pleading the blood that saves, but the faith expressed by the person pleading the blood.
What then does it mean to Plead the Blood? Yes, pleading the blood is a legal term. But it doesn’t mean what the writer said it means… that much I have already clarified.
So, what does it mean?
In a court of law when a person is accused of a crime, he or she will be asked, “What do you plead? Guilty or Innocent?“
When you stand before the Judgement of God, you too will be asked what you plead. If a person pleads “guilty,” they condemn themselves. If a person pleads “innocent,” they have attempted to justify themselves by their self-righteousness or by hook and by crook and we know in scripture, no one is justified by himself.
But that no one is justified by the law in the sight of God is evident, for “the just shall live by faith.” Galatians 3:11
So we see that both pleading guilty and pleading innocent will lead to damnation. That’s where the pleading of the blood comes in.
In this regard, we alone can plead the blood and not our High Priest who is also known as our attorney/lawyer. He can only say to the Judge, “My client pleads guilty/pleads innocent/pleads the Blood.”
The Significance of Pleading the Blood Now, this brings me back to the purpose of pleading the blood and the appropriate situation to do so – it is always used in relation to the act and consequence of sin and not for the protection of life, property and the Nigerian high ways as the Nigerian Christian often attempts to use it for.
Let’s see the purpose of the blood in scripture.
i. The blood is for the redemption from our sins
In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace. Ephesians 1:7
in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins. Colossians 1:14
[Jesus] whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed, Romans 3:25
ii. The blood reconciles us to God.
and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross. Colossians 1:20
The blood reconciles us to God by making peace through His blood. How? Our sinful actions makes us befriend the world, but at the same time makes us antagonize God. That’s what James 4:4 means by friendship with the world is enmity against God. Note: it is not God Who sees us as enemies, it is us who see Him and treat Him as an enemy by our sinful actions. What the blood does it to “wash away” our sinful actions so that we stop waring against God and rather become reconciled to Him.
iii. The blood justifies us before God.
Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. Romans 5:9
Thank God for Justification by the blood of Jesus not by our works, because of this, we can escape the coming wrath that is meant for sinners. We are free from it not because we are any better than them but because our sins were forgiven. Hallelujah!
The Blood does not chase devils nor does it protect property, we have the anointing and angels for that. It doesn’t make the blood any less powerful. It just means that it has its jurisdiction. The same way the anointing of the Holy Spirit cannot forgive you your sins; and that doesn’t make it any less powerful than it actually is. It only means it has its own jurisdiction.
The fact that the blood is technically not meant for those other things but solely related to matters of sin – to redeem from sin, reconcile back to God, and to justify us in face of Judgement – doesn’t mean we should now look down on those who still plead the blood over their food, the high ways or their house in an attempt to seek God’s protection. God will not fault the ignorant on account of technicalities but on account of their faith or lack of it.
The Usual Suspect Whenever I speak about this issue of pleading the blood and how it is not a demon chaser, I am often asked the question, what about Revelation 12:11?
And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death. Revelation 12:11
Well, the message in Revelation 12:11 is very similar to that seen in Romans 5:9 earlier. Just as in Romans 5, we are saved from being condemned by the wrath of God because we have been justified by His blood, in like manner, Revelations 12 reveals that we overcome the devil by the blood. How? Because the only claim the devil has over any man is ‘sin’ and once the blood has washed us from our sins, the devil has no more claims – that’s how we overcome him. Like Jesus said, “…for the ruler of this world is coming, and he has nothing in Me.”John 14:30
Sin is what attracts both the wrath of God and the claims of the devil on man. And if the Blood of Jesus has washed away our sins then we are freed from both the wrath of God and the claims of Satan over us. That is how we overcome Satan by the blood. It is not a case of the blood turning acidic on the hands of Satan…
The second question I am usually asked is, “What about the significance of the passover lamb and the blood that was put on the lintels of the house of the Israelites, isn’t that an example of ‘the blood’ acting as an offensive weapon to the forces of evil or at the very least, a form of protection on life and property?”
In scripture, ‘Blood’ is not only a symbol of redemption but also a symbol of death. The passover lamb was symbolic of Christ dying for us. And the Blood on the lintels of their houses was a token that the substitute was complete. So the blood there symbolised that everyone in that house was dead. Therefore, when the Angel of death passed by their houses it simply passed over them seeing that they were dead in its eyes.
The angel of death will not have any need to kill a household that was already dead.
Remember, the Passover is to the Old Testament what the breaking of bread (aka Holy Communion) is to the New Testament.
And just as in Exodus 12 the passover was instituted and instructed to become a memorial tradition, likewise it’s New Testament version.
Now when we read of it’s New Testament parallel, it makes us see why the Angel of passed over their houses.
For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord’s death till he come. 1 Cor 11:26 KJV
In like manner, when the Israelites ate the Passover that night, they were prophetically saying, our substitute has died for us, so we cannot die, not today, and not at the hand of the Angel of Death.
That is what the Passover was for the Israelites, and that’s what the Communion is for us – a proclamation of the death of our substitute, the Lamb of God, and if our substitute has died for us then the Angel of death cannot so much as touch us any longer.
Hallelujah! Because of what Jesus did for us on the cross, no plague of Covid nor angel of death can touch us any longer.
The Parable of Gibeah - Part 3 of 3
Headless
By Adams Allison
22 October 2020
Why did things deteriorate to such a state in Israel that the people of the covenant would stoop so low as to rape and kill a guest? The answer is laced all through the story from the very beginning even to the end, so that the message will resound and be enshrined in our hearts forever.
The Parable of Gibeah - Part 2 of 3
The Travail of Agitators
By Adams Allison
21 October 2020
The prophetic picture for what is happening in Nigeria can be seen in Judges Chapter 19 to 21. Let’s break it down to draw the prophetic parallel that this passage of scripture presents us.
The Violation of Social Contract
It all began with a clan from the tribe of Benjamin that breached the social contract that bound all the children of Israel together.
Introduction - Part 1 of 3
The 'Answer' is Up-Hill
By Adams Allison
21 October 2020
I will be sharing three important prophetic perspectives on the current happenings in our land as peaceful protesters were gunned down by an oppressive government. This will be the first perspective I will be sharing and it is only introductory in nature.
As the scripture says, Surely the Lord GOD does nothing, unless He reveals His secret to His servants the prophets.Amos 3:7 Thankfully, the Lord has not left us in the dark. He has been speaking to us.
If you recall, I shared a vision which I received from the Lord on July 1 2020, which I titled, The Vision of The Coming War. In it I saw two attacks; one was a warning and the other was the main attack. I am strongly convinced that the first attack revealed in that dream represents Covid 19, and the Second attack appears to be this new crises that is upon us as a nation.
