SSHHH, HERE COMES THE CROWN PRINCE

Message @ Breakfast with the President February 2006)

King David was as usual reflective. He surveyed the universe around him; the blinding brilliance of the sun, the majesty of the moon, the twinkling splendour of the stars, the vast endless sky, the flows and ebbs of the mighty ocean. He was awe-struck. Then he looked at himself and saw the relative physical insignificance of man compared to these great works of the Creator and he wondered aloud in Psalm 8: Why do you care about us humans? Why are you concerned for us weaklings?" 4).

Promptly came the answer from right inside his spirit: You made us a little lower than you yourself, and you have crowned us with glory and honor. You let us rule everything your hands have made. And you put all of it under our power (5&6).

Think about that. God did not simply give or pass on his glory and honour to man, he crowned him with both! Crowning is an ultimate gesture. In the world, when a man is to be crowned, it’s a big event - drums are rolled out, red carpets are laid and dignitaries are invited to honour the new Oba, Obi, Emir or whatever title may be conferred on him. That was what happened when God crowned man. He summoned the rest of creation and declared to them: behold my crown prince; he shall be your king; you will be subject to him and he shall lord it over you.

That was God’s great pleasure at creation; to make you His crown prince and He Has never changed and will never change His mind. But when man succumbed to sin and fell at the Garden of Eden, the glory departed, the crown fell off man’s princely head. That what Apostle Paul meant in Romans 3:23 when he declared: All of us have sinned and fallen short of God's glory. So, for a season, man walked the earth without the original glory and honour; a prince without his crown.

But the Almighty God would not allow His will to be thwarted by anything or anyone; not by sin, although He hates sin, and certainly not by satan, its author. So Jesus Christ enters into the picture to restore the glory.

Now let’s put this in perspective. When Jesus came to earth, He came as son of man NOT as Son of God. He emptied Himself of the glory that belonged to Him as an integral, inseparable member of the Godhead. He took on the full nature of mortal man. That’s the import of Apostle Paul’s declaration in Philippians 2:6: Although he was in the form of God and equal with God, he did not take advantage of this equality (God’s Word Bible). That is also corroborated in Hebrews 2:9 which reads: What we do see is Jesus, who for a little while was made lower than the angels…which was the status of fallen man.

That passage of scripture however went on to reveal the glory-restoring essence of Jesus’ sojourn on earth like this: Because of God's wonderful kindness, Jesus died for everyone. And now that Jesus has suffered and died, he is crowned with glory and honor! … So God did the right thing when he made Jesus perfect by suffering, as Jesus led many of God's children to be saved and to share in his glory.

This dimension of Jesus’ redemption work was a mystery for quite a while. Apostle Paul puts it this way: For ages and ages this message was kept secret from everyone, but now it has been explained to God's people… And the mystery is that Christ lives in you, and he is your hope of sharing in God's glory (Colossians 1: 26-7).

So, since Jesus lives in you, the glory and honour has been restored to you. You are God’s crown prince with all the power and authority that goes with that status. Notice, as we saw earlier, it is the same glory that Jesus operated in while here on earth. Read Philippians 2:6 again. It is through the power and authority inherent in that glory that he did all that He did on earth. He healed the sick, raised the dead, caused net-breaking draughts, wrought miracles of provision – all as a reflection of the glory!

Remember Jesus’ encounter with the storm? In Luke Chapter 8, we saw the Lord Jesus sleeping peacefully in the midst of a violent storm. His disciples were scared stiff. The Bilble records it like this: The boat was taking on water, and they were in danger.

They went to him, woke him up, and said, "Master! Master! We're going to die!" Then he got up and ordered the wind and the waves to stop. The wind stopped, and the sea became calm.

The original Greek translation of that scene showed that all that the Lord Jesus said to that so-called violent storm was something like this: Sshhhiiii.

Continues the passage: … Frightened and amazed, they asked each other, "Who is this man? He gives orders to the wind and the water, and they obey him!" You know the answer? He was the crown prince who knew the power and authority that the glory and honour has conferred on him – and is willing to exercise them.

You are God’s crown prince in exactly the way Jesus was while on earth. So when next that storm comes your way, do not fret, do not panic, just calmly look at it and say: sshiiiii. It must obey you.