The Banquet

(This is a supernatural memo, coded for the called, a mystery to the crowd)

I share a banquet table with friends all the time

We are having that kind of a year- A year of feasting

We will usually have a fellowship meeting, and as the meeting is ending, we will most likely be heading for a feast

We dine at the best restaurants, and company is always splendid

We are fulfilling prophecy and bringing hope to a nation that somehow found itself trudging through a season of famine

It is logical for the church to declare a fast in the time of famine

The Lord told us in January 2023 that we are coming into eight years of abundance

Nothing we see in the physical and our environment suggests it

But we have seen a prophet fed by ravens in the season of famine

We have seen a widow and her son sustained by the word of a prophet

We have seen another widow producing several drums of oil out of a little bottle

We have seen thousands fed by a few loaves of bread and some fishes

We have seen words spoken in the middle of the night, producing a city in two years

We cannot look at the prevailing wind on the outside

We have to observe the wind of the Spirit dominating through us on the inside

As I sat across the table at the latest feast we had, the Lord began to speak to me

He said, "Don't eat and drink during this feast and don't engage your friends in conversation. Just sit still and observe the radiance in the faces of my children. 

Then, the table we were sitting on, which was not so big, began to expand in my sight, and it became a whole banquet hall.

(Now we were at a party, and we had our own table, so this was not a restaurant or an eatery)

Now, I saw a vision

So I sat there

The Lord said look at the tables I have prepared before you; be sure I have forgotten no one

(Now, I don't know every member of the ministry personally; I am, however, familiar with many, and I began to look around the table for them. I was sure if I could find them, they, in turn, would be able to account for others who are in their teams or their immediate sphere of influence. That way, everybody would be accounted for)

On that first table, I saw names carefully written on golden place cards, placed on the table in front of each seat so that everyone knew where to seat

Surprisingly, everyone was present at this feast, including old friends and even some whom I had lost contact with or fallen out with due to one reason or another.

The room was filled up to the last name, for everyone invited to this feast was present.

It was a feast with the King; none dare turn it down

Then the Lord said, "Walk with me as I walk amid my people."

Then we began this walk through the hall

For every table, as we walked through, the guests would stand, and the Lord would greet them one by one by name. In some cases, he would mention things about them that made their faces brighten up especially because it showed them that he was mindful of them and he remembered intimate details about them.

We got to a table, and the Lord turned to me and said, "Now, cheer up. Why were you looking gloomy?"

I said, "Oh, it is because of my friends, the ones that saw you and brightened up, but when they saw me, they looked disappointed."

The Lord said, "They loved you much more than most. What you saw in their faces was not a look of disappointment; it was a look of concern and hurt that came from a place of love."

"How can I make it right?" I asked

The Lord didn't say a word; he just walked on, smiling. shaking the hands of some and tapping the shoulders of others before engulfing them in his warm embrace

Then he looked at me and said, "Cheer up, then. This look does not befit a feast. Why are you sulking?"

I was not sulking; I was about to do that justifying thing that we do when we need help after trying to solve difficult puzzles by ourselves and discovering that they were more difficult than we envisaged.

I was about to vent my frustrations

The Lord said, "Alright then, out with it..."

I said, "I miss my friends. I have managed to keep many, but I have lost some along the way. Some have kept me at arm's length, and I have deliberately kept others at arm's length. Some wanted more attention than I could spare them, and others whom I gave my attention abused it and used that privilege to hurt me while pretending they cared. 

It was the most challenging bit of my journey, and It hurts

The Lord said, "You and your sentiments; they are what makes you so unique among all of creation. The fact that your weakness is also your strength.

He was like God and yet wanted to be like God, a paradox, don't you think?

She was loved, yet she craved love. He tells her he loves her, and she knows this to be true, but the kind of love she craves is not the kind of love he is offering.

He was offering the stable, responsible and encompassing love of a husband; she was craving the hot, passionate, quickened and reckless love of a lover.

She knows the second love is not sustainable or reasonable and without the first love, she wouldn't even dare to crave the second because it was the first love that brought her to the place of fulfilment that led her even to crave the second. 

She takes the second, and then it dawns on her, like a child who wishes his mother dead only to discover after her mother had died that she could not wish her back to life, that she was satisfied with the first and was only consumed by lust for the second.

Lust ruins love, so she lost out on the real because she was chasing an illusion.

This has always been the undoing of your kind.

You want the past to be present, and you want the future to be present while also desiring the present to be present.

You forget time is a continuum, and until you have come to a place of timelessness, it is the coming and the going of people into and out of your life that marks the beginning of eras and their endings.

You must learn to deal with this and to master it.

Now cheer up; we have much ground to cover before the feast begins."

Sometimes being with the Lord, even in a vision, is a mind-boggling experience; you expect your spirit to have instant comprehension of all things, but you find yourself reeling at the depth of His unfathomable wisdom for months after your encounter with Him.

We got to a table; there were eight seats, and all of them were empty

Curiously enough, all the place cards were present, and the table was of another colour and shade of gold than the rest.

The Lord said, "Here, in this banquet, I have invited some witnesses; they know this terrain, and their insight can be of great help to you in those areas where you struggle, especially in dealing with issues of your fellow saints and those who yet to be saints but have been drawn into the same space with you."

Just then, the witnesses arrived, and the Lord hugged them as they sat one after the other

There were seven of them, even though there were eight chairs

The Lord said, "Always keep a seat unoccupied at their table; they do not stand to talk to the saints, and when any saint approaches their table, he must be seated in silence to learn of their wisdom and glean of their experiences.

They know the question, but you must learn how to get the answers in silence.

By this time, we were back at our table, and the feast began in earnest

I heard a voice saying, "They are calling us to a dance," and I came out of the open vision

There was music and conversation all around me

We stood up to dance

Before I arrived at the event, I had been driving all about the venue, thinking about a particular puzzle I sincerely wanted to solve

It had been on my mind for over a year, and I was determined to resolve it once and for all.

As soon as we stood up to dance, I realised the puzzle was gone from my heart.

It didn't have the kind of weight it had before that moment

It just lost its power to matter

Awesome.

The dance was good

I felt like I was in a crowd for hours after.

I mean, hours after I had left the event and gotten back to my house

The presence of the feast and the feasters, the banquet and the witnesses were still as real and heavy as it felt when I was at the party.

11/04/2024

-GSW-