Isa.7: 11 Ask thee a sign of the LORD thy God; ask it either in the depth, or in the height above.

12 But Ahaz said, I will not ask, neither will I tempt the LORD.

13 And he said, Hear ye now, O house of David; Is it a small thing for you to weary men, but will ye weary my God also?

14 Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel

Math.1: 23 Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us” Math 1:

In the part 1 of this meditation, we have indicated that fear came upon king Ahaz because of what the king of Syria and that of Israel planned to do to Judah through invasion.

And in verse 11, in order to reassure Ahaz that He God will protect him from their planned attach, He said .

“11 Ask thee a sign of the LORD thy God; ask it either in the depth, or in the height above. In other words, tell me what I can use to prove to you that I will surely protect and defend you from hands of your enemies. The reply of the king was  ”… I will not ask, neither will I tempt the LORD”.

And so the lord said, if you will not ask for a sign from me, I am going to give you one and here it is …

“Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel”

Futherrmore, that by the time this child is weaned and knows right from wrong, the two kings you fear so much-the kings of Israel and Syria -will both be dead. Verses 15-16

So, again this is the background to the promise of the virgin giving birth to a son whose name shall be called Emmanuel as a sign to king Ahaz to take away his fears.

The prophetic words of Priest Zachariah at the birth of John confirm this to us that we who have come to know the Lord as Emmanuel are truly being delivered from the fear of men and everything that obstructs us in the worship of our God the Father. Hear him prophesied as it relates to the birth of Jesus.

Luke 1: 67 And his father Zacharias was filled with the Holy Ghost, and prophesied, saying,

68 Blessed be the Lord God of Israel; for he hath visited and redeemed his people,

69 And hath raised up an horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David;….

71 That we should be saved from our enemies, and from the hand of all that hate us;…..

74 That he would grant unto us, that we being delivered out of the hand of our enemies might serve him without fear,

This then is the Emmanuel factor in our worship and life. To live and serve God without fear

IM-MENU-EL; literally, means the STRONG GOD WITH US: Now what is the true meaning of this in the New Testament for us and to us.. It is simply

‘the Word which was God-was made flesh, and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth’ ( John 1:1,14). In other words, the strong invisible God was made manifest in the flesh..

1Tim. 3:16. 16 “ And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory.”

This then is the full mystery of the meaning of the name ‘Emmanuel’.  This is what we are called to see and understand, Emmanuel,God with us, it implies that God incarnated, took on him the human nature.

Paul sharing this thought said…Rom.1: 3 “Concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh;

His being born as the seed of David is the God incarnating as man..’Emmanuel’. And so we are told

“Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God. And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world. ” 1 John.4:2-3.

In other words, the antichrist spirit will not accept the fact that God became man and lived amongst us as the Jesus Christ. it simply means therefore whosoever will not believe or accept the fact that the word again can be made flesh in the believer is the antichrist. If we can’t live up to ‘flesh’ the word in our daily lives and in the world, then we are manifesting the spirit of the antichrist. We are called to make the word flesh again, that is the meaning of Emmanuel, the strong God is with us.

Let us  understand that ‘Emmanuel’;  was not just the  common name of Christ or his surname,  but rather this name  points out his nature and office; as He is God incarnate, and dwells by his Spirit in the hearts of his people.

Maybe scriptures like Isa.43:6-7 will begin to make more sense to us..

“I will say to the north, Give up; and to the south, keep not back: bring my sons from far, and my daughters from the ends of the earth; .Even every one that is called by my name: for I have created him for my glory, I have formed him; yea, I have made him”

It is man that is made in the image and Glory of God who lost it through the fall.  And so “That which hath been is now; and that which is to be hath already been; and God requireth that which is past”( Eccl..3:15).

That which is past , which is required, is the restoration man to his dominion mandate, back from the realm of decay and corruption through Adam. For Adam WAS the son of God, (Luke.3:38) But Christ IS the son of God.( Mtah.16:16).

“Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new”.( 2Cor.5: 17).

This is the revelation of the Emmanuel dimension in the believer. The new creation man.

Again,  this union of the Divine and human nature is what is termed a sign or miracle, (twaoth), i.e. talking of that which goes beyond the power of nature to produce.

Therefore, this miraculous union of the divine with the human nature should be perfected in a divine way, i.e. a virgin bringing forth. And this miraculous union was to be brought about in a miraculous way, a sign indeed!.

So, we found  the fulfillment of Gen. 3:15; “The seed of the woman shall bruise the head of the serpent,”

It is the seed of the woman without the impute of the man that shall bruise the head of the serpent. Meaning the incorruptible nature of God coming in union with us destroys the power and source of the serpent, the deceptive spirit within our being. Resulting in ‘old things being passed away and all things becoming new’. Because of Emmanuel, the strong God is with us.

To be continued…

©2016 –  Dr. David O. Ogaga

What is Emmanuel and who is Emmanuel to us as believers. How do we relate to the Father God? How much of the Emmanuel dimension of the Christ do we really know? The prophetic word by the angel sent to Joseph while he thought to put away Mary privately with good intention for her becoming pregnant without the knowledge of a man was..

:21 And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins. {JESUS: that is, Saviour, Heb}

22 Now all this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying,

23 Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us” Math 1:

Now can’t you see the church know the lord so much as Jesus, the one that came to save us from our sins and nothing much about the lord Emmanuel?

When all that we present to the believer is JESUS that came  to save us from our sins, and no true knowledge of the Emmanuel dimension, do we really expect the church to come to maturity? Is it a surprise today that the church is intimidated by messages  of the power of the devil, and so producing very intimidated and cowed believers because we know very little of the Emmanuel dimension of the presence of God ?

Can’t we see that all our prayers are based on fear and not faith because we lack the knowledge of the Emmanuel, the second Grace, if i may use the word, of God? Saving us from our sins is based on Grace, what about living out our freedom in the power of him being with us. Why do you think Christians walk with so much fear in them, even though they are saved from their sins. Yet the word says the righteous are as bold as a lion.Prov.28:1. It is the missing knowledge of the Emmanuel dimension in our teaching and worship.

The word of the angel to Joseph is “thou shalt call his name JESUS” But as fulfilling the prophecy.. “they shall call his name Emmanuel,”. From a “thou” .singular to a “They” plural. Speaking of what the church ought to truly know the Father as..

Meaning our relationship to him should go beyond just knowing the Father as the one that saved us from our sins (Jesus) to the one who is presently abiding with us, Emmanuel.

This knowledge takes us from the realm of just a poor sinner saved by grace to a faith based work and walk  with the lord on the earth without any form of intimidation, fear and doubts leading to unbelieve.

I remembered a few years ago flying to South Africa for a meeting from Nigeria, and at the point of take off,  here was a lady behind me praying in tongues and wouldn’t even give you the peace, this she repeated when the announcement came from the Pilot that we are about descending to Johannesburg  . I began to wonder what the trouble was. And the lord spoke to me and said. ‘son so many know me as Jesus but few know me as Emmanuel’.

Meaning the reason for all of those prayers and noise was based on the fear of death. Her thought was, ‘God don’t allow the devil crash this plane while am inside’.

Can you see what I mean? Should this be the way we live our lives as believers on a daily bases after many years of coming to the lord? Only the true knowledge of God as Emmanuel can deliver us from this intimating spirit of the fear of death from the so called devil the supposed Christians hangman?.

Now, the background to this prophetic word to Joseph about his wife Mary is found in Isa 7:1-15.

It was a time at which the kingdom of Judah, under the government of Ahaz, was reduced very low.  Pekah, king of Israel, had slain in Judea 120,000 persons in one day, and carried away captives 200,000, including women and children, together with much spoil.

To add to their distress, Rezin, king of Syria, being in a league with Pekah, had taken Elath, a fortified city of Judah, and carried the inhabitants’ away captive to Damascus.

No, because of this, king Ahaz was afraid that the enemies who were now united against him will prevail to destroy Jerusalem, and the kingdom of Judah, and so annihilate the family of David!

That was what led to God given this prophecy to king Ahaz of Judah. It was as a result of fear and God was only trying to reassure the king that He God will protect and deliver him from the hands of the enemies..The Emmanuel dimension of God…

To be continued…

© 2016 –  Dr. David O. Ogaga

Mathew. 5: 8 Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.

Jesus meant what he said and it was a promise to a people right then and now that was and is realisable.

What does it mean to see God then?

Pure in heart. To the religious Jewish Pharisees, purification to see God is centered on outward purity of diverse washing, and cleansings etc On this ground of which they were expecting to see God, and to enjoy eternal glory: yet their hearts were full of corruption and defilement.

1 Sam.20: 1 And David fled from Naioth in Ramah, and came and said before Jonathan, What have I done? what is mine iniquity? and what is my sin before thy father, that he seeketh my life?

2 And he said unto him, God forbid; thou shalt not die: behold, my father will do nothing either great or small, but that he will shew it me: and why should my father hide this thing from me? it is not so.

Gal.3: 13 Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree:

Here it is said, Christ hath redeemed us- ( exhgorasen).meaning he had bought us with a price; i.e his blood, or life, by being made a curse for us.

Made a curse; treated as accursed, in suffering for our sake the accursed death of the cross. Deut. 21:23; 2Co 5:21.

In other words, he was being made as atonement for our sins. This is so because that which was offered as atonement for sin was considered as bearing the punishment due to sin.

And the person who suffered for transgression was considered as bearing the curse in his body; and such a victim in was taken down from the cross the same day he was executed and buried out of sight to prevent the pollution of the land. The reason being that he that was hanged, was considered accursed of God, which was the case for every of such victim of such crime (Deut.21:22,23). This was responsible for Jesus ‘body being removed same day from the cross.

John 1: 29 The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.

“For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him”. 2 Cor.5: 21.

Looking at the above scriptures, we can see that Jesus as a sin offering was offered by God himself. John referred to him as the Lamb of God. Meaning just like everyone was to offer his sin offering for the purpose of sacrifice, even so God by himself has offered for mankind a Lamb suitable for a sin offering to take the place of whatever man will attempt to have offered or will want to offer. This is the only acceptable sin offering to God. So just like he provided a sin offering for Cain, and even a ram for Abraham to be offered in place of Isaac, even so has he provided this sinless Lamb for the sins of humanity. This is what we are seeing here. It is the Lamb of God, God’s own personal Lamb, that is Jesus.

Further we are told. He was offered to take away the sin of the world. It’s a singular sin. So we are talking about the very act resulting from the fall of Adam in the Garden. Therefore Paul in Romans said.

“Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned…..

For if by one man’s offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ.

Math. 27: 3 Then Judas, which had betrayed him, when he saw that he was condemned, repented himself, and brought again the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders,

4 Saying, I have sinned in that I have betrayed the innocent blood. And they said, what is that to us? see thou to that”.

The above scripture is the confession and testimony of Judas Iscariot after he has betrayed Jesus. Now do you know the strength of the statement he just made when he said, I have betrayed THE INNOCENT BLOOD? He didn’t say ‘an’ innocent blood but THE ..

It is from the word = athoos, ath’-o-os in the Greek, Meaning “not guilty:–innocent” and it is taken from the root word (. a ) a, al’-fah of Hebrew origin; the first letter of the alphabet; figuratively, the first: –Alpha. And that speaks of the very first blood Adam had before the fall. The original blood that is without corruption, sin.. It’s completely free of sin and any such thing that is associated with sin.

The innocent Blood is the ‘apha’ blood, the very first and original blood. Yes, Jesus had no sin in his blood system while he walked the earth. He was completely innocent. Therefore he was not a sinner not even on the cross.

But God “made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him”. 2 Cor.5: 21.

Again like I stated in part 1 of this discuss, I have heard people in various none Christian groups say, one of the major reasons Jesus has to die the way he did was because he was paying for the sins of his previous life. In other words they were buttressing their belief of reincarnation. But we know that Jesus only incarnated but never reincarnated.

So when you begin to teach that the sins of the world was laid on him even on the cross, you are also saying he died the death of a sinner because of sin and that also means he was a sinner. And that is very dangerous a doctrine concerning our Lord Jesus Christ.

Here is an illustration. Barabbas was a murderer and seditionist, who were to be crucified according to the law of the Jews/Romans, but Jesus took his place and he was released. Does that mean Jesus actually committed the very crime of being a murderer? The answer says no! But he took the punishment due the crime of Barabbas which was death. Barabbas then was a type of humanity so that we could be free from the penalty of death.

Here is what the word says about this fact in Heb. 2:9

“But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour; that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man”. (KJV)

The Church has indirectly agreed with the world by teaching that Jesus was a sinner. There are sayings that Jesus died for his own sins, therefore he cannot save you. That when Jesus said ‘take up your cross and follow me’ he meant to say I am dying for my sins, so you also get ready to die for your own sins, that is what is meant by work out your own salvation, which they also interpret to mean the interplay of the law of karma.

Silhouette of Jesus Christ crucifixion on cross on Good Friday Easter

While the Church may not say this openly, they teach same thing when they say that our sins were laid on him, making him a sinner and so he was so ugly that we could not behold him and even God could not look upon his son because of the sins of the world that was laid on him, and that is why he shouted my God, my God why have thou forsaken me

But essentially the Bible never for once mentioned that our sins were laid on him. This is what it says..

“These are they which follow the lamb withersoever He goeth. These were redeemed from among men, BEING THE FIRST FRUITS UNTO GOD AND TO THE LAMB” Rev.14:4.

“By his own will he brought us into being through the word of truth, so that we should have first place among all his creatures” James 1:18 GNT.