Direct Access

DIRECT ACCESS
MATTHEW 17: 14-18

I stood there, listening to Jesus.
I found it rather difficult to grasp what He said.
Don’t get me wrong: I UNDERSTOOD what He said, my challenge was ACCEPTING it!

Let me give you a background story…

My son is a lunatic. He has serious mental issues- I believed it was a demon worrying him. As a father, I was concerned: no parent wants his/her child to suffer anything in life. We all hope our children achieve greater things than us. So, while other people’s children were going to school, mine was at home, chained to a bed. My wife and I are embarrassed by this. We know it is not a secret: we hear side talks and hushed conversations about us all over the town, what can we do?

When he was getting more and more violent, throwing himself into fires to burn himself and into water to drown himself, we decided to seek external help: we took him to the Psychiatric Hospital. 6 months later, he was not getting any better, so we decided to seek spiritual help: we took him to the Apostle in town…
Apostle laid hands on him and prayed.
Nothing happened.
Apostle commanded the demon to leave him.
Nothing happened.
He brought out his bottle of anointing oil.
My son laughed!
The laughter was strange to me- it was not my son’s voice!
Apostle sprinkled the oil on my son.
Nothing happened!
Apostle did not know what to do again.
I was highly disappointed!
Why couldn’t Apostle help?
Is he not in sync with Jesus again?
Has he lost his power?
I honestly don’t get it…

A week later, we heard the popular Bishop is in town. We quickly took our son to him. The Bishop was to be in town for 5 days, so we went to stay in the same hotel he was staying to get access to him- we knew it would be practically impossible to see him at the program he came for: such events are usually jam packed.
We eventually met with him on the 4th day.
We explained our mission to him: our lunatic son.
He did same with the Apostle, no change.
He laid hands on him, he prayed, he did “blood of sprinkling” on the boy, nothing happened. He even washed his feet unto greatness, my son was just staring at him.
All the things the Bishop did had no effect on the boy…

At that point, I lost all hope.
It seemed to me God was not really interested in healing my son. I’m probably destined to live with this.
This must be my own “thorn in the flesh” Paul wrote about, I concluded.

So we returned the boy to the psychiatric hospital and went back home.
A few days later, my very good friend came visiting. He asked about my son.
“He’s still in the Psychiatric Hospital”, I told him.
I told him about my encounters with the Apostle and the Bishop.
He sighed.
Then he said something that sounded very odd to me: “Why don’t you take him to Jesus?”
Take him to Jesus? How? When I took him to meet the Apostle and the Bishop, was that not same as taking him to Jesus?
My friend laughed!
“No it’s not, my friend! You have to understand that you can meet Jesus DIRECTLY!”
Woah!
Nobody has ever told me this before!
How can I meet Jesus directly then?
“I’ll show you”, my friend responded.
And he took me to Jesus…

“Hello, how are you doing?” Jesus asked.
I was surprised!
So, I can have DIRECT ACCESS to Him like this! Woah!
“I’m fine, sir: it’s my son sir! Have mercy on him- he’s a lunatic!
I was on my knees.
“He is always so violent, he throws himself into the fire or water like someone who has a death wish!”
Jesus smiled…

I continued: “I have even taken him to the Apostle and the Bishop, your followers, they couldn’t do anything!”
Jesus laughed!

He said: “But you have DIRECT ACCESS to me, sir!
You don’t need any other mediator to get to me, honestly: I’m just a prayer away! Bring your son please…”
I brought him to Jesus and He rebuked the demon and it left him immediately!
Woah!

I asked, “But sir…”
“Yes?”
We have always been indirectly taught that to get to you, we need to go through our Men of God, the Apostles and Bishops! They tell us to bring our prayer requests to them, they tell us to always come to them for everything, giving us the impression they enjoy some privileges with you ordinary men like us can’t enjoy…”
Jesus smiled…

You have direct access to me, sir. My word tells you to look unto ME, the author and finisher of your faith (Hebrews 12:2)! When you shift your gaze away from ME to anything else, you go down like Peter did!”

I knelt there listening to Jesus, my theology was getting destroyed. I had a serious problem ACCEPTING what I was hearing: I have DIRECT ACCESS TO JESUS!
Who would have thought!

We sure have a lot of unlearning and relearning to do in our Churches…

Shalom,
Haruna Daniels