THEME: TOTAL TAKEOVER: RAISING CHRIST’S VICTORY BANNER OVER THE NATIONS 

PREAMBLE 

 (Psalm 103) : “Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless His Holy Name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits: Who forgiveth all thine iniquities, who health all thy diseases, who redeemeth thy life from destruction, who crowneth thee with loving-kindness and tender mercies, who satisfieth thy mouth with good things, so that thy youth is renewed like the eagle’s.” 

 The LORD executed righteousness and judgement for all the oppressed, who have made known His ways unto us this day. And declared and worked out His Good Intentions towards us as Church, Nation and People of Ghana.    

(Read on: Psalm 103: 8 – 22) 

Beloved, yesterday we came face-to-face with the LORD and in the encounter, we were lifted up to the Throne Room of God, where Christ is seated on His Throne of Glory on the right-hand side of the High Potentate. We were reminded at the opening of the rally that the invitation unto the rally is an invitation unto the LORD—that we can approach the throne of the King of Glory only when we have clean hands, pure hearts, and our souls lifted from deceit, iniquity, and guile. 

(Group Reading of Psalm 24) 

By the mercies of God, we sought the LORD as a people—a generation of seekers—as well as a People Elected by the Lord as His watchmen in our country and soldiers of His End-Time Kingdom Army in Africa and the world. To make possible our personal redemption and standing before the throne of the King of Glory (as demanded by the scriptures), we lifted up our heads and gates and opened up the Everlasting Doors of our soul-spirits for the King of Glory to come in unto our hearts and soul-spirits. And also, to make way for us to go up to heaven, appearing and standing with Him as he sat on His Throne of Glory by the throne of the High Potentate, even God the father. 

As the prophecy went out in the morning, at the Evening Session, the Lord our God moved upon us and presented Himself unto us to lift us up and lead us, as both Church and People, to the Throne of Glory in Heaven. It was an exhilarating experience—a joy to behold. Never have I had this experience: the people of God marching to Heaven, representing the Redeemed People and the First Fruits of Christ’s salvation mission on Earth, entering the Throne Room and presence of the High Potentate. 

It may be remembered, we also prayed for your children and declared them liberated and delivered from the power of sin and death, from Satanic oppression and dominion, and the consequences of the evil works of us as parents. We broke the chains and opened the doors of a New Life of God’s Kingdom Glory for the children. (Those not present: take this up yourselves). Finally, we ended up putting on the Robe of Righteousness, establishing our standing as Trees of Righteousness—the planting of the Lord. 

That is to say, as mentioned in my welcome address, we have established ourselves in the Robe of Righteousness and entered into the full victory of Christ for our lives, making ourselves ready now as the Redeemed of the Lord, the Church, and Watchmen to enter the spiritual realm of Christ’s victory. We Lift up Christ’s Victory Banner over our entire affairs: our businesses, enterprises, professions, vocations, and career; our ministry; and all that we are, hope to be, and to do in our lives and affairs. 

We were brought to the stage of Redeeming the Lost and Possessing Possessions. This, we will do tonight. The sub-theme for today’s activities is THE VICTORY PARADE. 

INTRODUCTION 

My task in this opening talk today is to define the battle ground—to enable us to engage in specific battles and not general warfare as such. We must raise Christ’s Victory Banner over every area and plant the Victory Flag at each and every place of victory. In this respect, I am viewing the battle ground—broad and wide as it is—as a place or platform for total takeover, and not just sections thereof. Christ’s Victory must affect and transform all areas of our lives as individuals, as families, as Church, as nation, as people, and as a special ministry in the affairs of the entire continent of Africa. 

What we will do however is to identify, define, and raise pillars for establishing the entire battleground under Christ’s Victory Banner. The first and critical areas the Spirit of the LORD would have us consider are the broad issues of: 

 i. Peace 

ii. Righteousness and 

iii. Justice in affairs of nations and human affairs in general.

These constitute the foundational pillars of Christ’s Redemption and Messianic Kingdom and Government on earth. 

Let us consider each briefly. 

PEACE  

On peace in our lives, in our nation, and in human affairs in the world at large, there are three areas for consideration: 

a. Peace with God 

b. Peace with our neighbors 

c. Peace in Society or Nation 

Peace with God demands reconciliation with God based upon Christ’s Blood Atonement and His sacrifice on the Cross, as well as the acceptance of the testimony of God about Christ, His Will, His Law, and Commandments. All peoples and we must know, acknowledge, and worship Him alone as God. This is a fundamental requirement for Peace on Earth. 

That established, not only do we have then to reject Satan—the prince and power of the air who inspired disobedience and helped to establish man’s kingdom of disobedience—we have to do battle to remove and force His hands off our lives and our affairs. In that respect, idolatry and religion without a base and true connection with God need to be rejected and totally abandoned as individuals, as families, and as a people. No nation can know and abide in perfect peace without establishing Christ’s Victory via the Word and Ministry of Reconciliation. 

Perhaps, it may be necessary to mention that the proclamation of the Gospel of Salvation or Word of Justification and Reconciliation implies, at the same time, doing battle to remove the hand of Satan and other ideas and systems of disobedience that provoke and perpetuate Divine Wrath and Judgement. This in another context is implied in the Ministry of Reconciliation (2nd Corinthians 5:18-21). There will be no lasting peace in our lives and our affairs if we fail to bring Everything under Christ’s Victory Banner. 

Satan, being an enemy of God of our lives, will continue to wreak havoc to our soul-spirits, lives, affairs, nations, or peoples. He has come—and it is his vision or mission on earth to rob, kill, and destroy (John 10:10; 2nd Corinthians 4:4; Ephesians 2:1-3). We must know, understand, and make our people know and understand this and accept Christ’s Victory for their lives/affairs. This is Liberation. Peace with our neighbors is established through Love and the Preaching, Teaching, Bringing, and Discipling our neighbors on Christ’s Redemption Work and Victory, and God’s Will/Law for all men. 

The basic Law: 

a. Love thy neighbor as self; 

b. Do unto others as ye would have them do unto you; 

c. Seek the good of all 

d. Live and work as unto God 

Peace in society can also be established in similar manner. However, in so far as it will take time to evangelize all, and in so far as not all the people may accept the Peace Proposition, God’s People must live, propagate, demonstrate, and establish a state of peace and goodwill in society. 

 That brings us to the next and crucial issue in life, business, career and ministry: RIGHTEOUSNESS. Yesterday, we made a thorough search into the MYSTERY OF CHRIST, and with it, the way of righteousness. We found out that reconciliation, justification, and righteousness are established through faith in Christ. That Faith in Christ leads us to the Fountain of Righteousness. As we found out, righteousness is first imputed and then imparted into our being, making us Trees of Righteousness. That being the case, evangelism and discipling people in Christ is a basic and fundamental requirement for righteousness in the affairs of men. 

Society must be brought to know, understand, and be persuaded to acknowledge God and His Christ, and respect and obey the Will, Law, and Commandments of God, as a way of life and requisite for communal and social well-being. This will help, first, to prevent the wrath of God as a social or natural phenomena, and second to reduce—if not totally remove—the consequences of sin and unrighteousness in society. Individuals may face the consequences of their own evil ways, but the society and nation at large must be spared from the nightmare of the collective consequences of evil and unrighteousness. For example, people who steal and practice bribery and corruption should ‘face the music’ when caught. However, bribery and corruption should not be allowed to enslave the nation, or to disrupt and destroy national progress and well-being of the entire peoples. We know the injunction of the Beatitudes (Mathew 5,6, & 7), Psalm 1, and Psalm 15 regarding righteousness in society. We also know in this connection, our responsibility as Watchmen, as directed in Isaiah 62:1,6-9. “Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to all.” 

The next pillar for establishing Christ’s Victory Banner is JUSTICE in our lives and society. 

Justice in our lives and society pertains essentially not so much to moral conduct and fairness in dealings and transactions in society, but a spiritual foundation of knowledge and fear of God which implies knowing, believing, and understanding of the consequence of Divine displeasure and written judgement and retribution in human affairs. Justice demands a spirit of love and concern for neighbor—involving as it is respect for human rights and liberty, the dignity of man, and responsibility for the well-being of the neighbor, in short walking in the light of God (Isaiah 2:2-5). Third, justices demand respect for law and order, justice in conduct and human relations, found and established in the Knowledge, Fear and Law of God. 

The Bible tells us in Isaiah 9:6-7, that the Messianic Kingdom is ordered and established with judgement and with justice.  

CONCLUSION 

These are the three foundational pillars for establishing our Lives, Families, and Business and all affairs under Christ’s Victory Banner. We must understand that we have a duty to acknowledge, establish, pursue, and defend these three Pillars against spirits, principalities, and powers that will rise up against us but most important still they should be pillars on which we build our lives, our families, our businesses, enterprises, professions, careers, ministries, et al. That is to say, Peace, Righteousness, and Justice constitute the spiritual and moral foundational value system for conduct, individual, personal, family group, and societal. As a Church we have three-dimensional obligations: 

i. To remain and maintain our standing as trees of righteousness: avoiding the return to the condemnation, guilt, and death in the flesh and fallen system. 

ii. To proclaim the gospel/word and disciple the Nations and pursue the Ministry of Reconciliation. 

iii. To serve as watchmen in the land 

We are aware, are we not, that to establish peace, righteousness, and justice in society we face and will face a host of spirits, principalities, powers, spirits, and human beings, their systems and structures of disobedience, wickedness, and death. 

For these, are we, called.  Against and over these forces of spirits and men, thrones and dominions and kingdoms do we raise Christ’s Victory Banner. 

Lift Jesus Higher.  Hallelujah.  

Friday 27th December 2002