Jesus answered and said unto him, Because I said unto thee, I saw thee under the fig tree, believest thou? thou shalt see greater things than these. And he saith unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Hereafter ye shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man. [John 1:50-51]


Here, at the beginning of Jesus' ministry on earth, He was talking to Nathaniel. Jesus saw Nathaniel coming to Him and said "Behold an Israelite indeed in whom is no guile". Nathaniel was so thrilled about Jesus knowing lots of things about him, he said: "...Rabbi, thou art the Son of God, thou art the King of Israel." [Verse 49]. This spiritual depth in Nathaniel got Jesus excited. Jesus replied, 'because I gave you a tip of divine things, you already believe? because I released a little treasure unto you as I saw you under the fig tree, you are already overwhelmed?...', it moved Jesus to want to release some more deeper nuggets unto him... Jesus now says "Nathaniel, you are going to see greater things than these. what you saw that looked great in your eyes is still so small in comparison to what I will rain down, hereafter, heavens will open before your very eyes, and the angels will ascend and descend upon the Son of man".

"...thou shalt see greater things than these..."

In today's world, because of the kind of Christianity many are practicing, if you encounter a verse of scriptures that reads "thou shalt see greater things than these", without going further to read what is written in the next verse [verse 51] that further explains what greater things truly are, many minds will begin to think of some bogus physical things and some material breakthroughs. If suddenly, Jesus appears to you in a revelation, or a revered servant of God you hold in high regard pays you a visit and during his ministrations, he recognizes your commitments in the local church, he appreciates your consecrations, he sees your persistent devotions to the things of God, he notices the extra mile you go, farther than lots of other devotees in the fold, and in response to the efforts you put in which has moved the ministry forward, in his excitement, he opens his mouth and says "for coming to the help of the Lord at a season like this, I prophecy, that beyond your imaginations, thou shalt see greater things than these...". I'm sure as the man releases this prophecy, if you will be honest, your mind will immediately expect things like material wealth, money, good house, travel opportunities abroad, good grades, scholarships, contracts worth great price, good job,... as your definition of "greater things". Most of the times, even in the mind of the same Pastor who released the prophecies, his own definition of greater things too is not far-fetched from your carnal expectations.

Jesus answered and said unto him, ... thou shalt see greater things than these. And he saith unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto you,...

Jesus went further in verse 51 to explain what actually "greater things" are:

"thou shalt see GREATER THINGS...Verily, verily, I say unto you, Hereafter ye shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man."

What is Christ's definition of "greater things"? What is it that Jesus is so excited about and would want to release upon those in whom He is well pleased?, What is it that Jesus will not just cast to the dogs and the swine? What will He not give unto the common, nominal people?, those things that heaven uses to separate those who have found the depth of divine favour with God from the common majority?, I am sure it is the issue revealed in this sentence, "Hereafter ye shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man."

When heaven opens, is it common things that will be pouring from heaven?, is it things that money can buy? things that earth can afford? things that can be found in the midst of men?, would Jesus call it "greater things" if the rich of the world could afford it? is it money and houses that will suddenly be released from heaven?... Many men already have all those material goods, even without Jesus. I think we need something ONLY heaven can release before it can truly be termed "greater things". Jesus said, Angels of God will be ascending and descending, not even upon you or me, BUT, UPON CHRIST, THE SON OF MAN - This is wonderful - I'm sure many people don’t like that kind of greater things, they are too carnally minded, and God cannot entrust divine riches unto them, their god is their bellies, they are not interested in spiritual things, they are men who are blind to the spiritual, and can easily be satisfied with peanuts.

What many people see as greater things today, are actually smaller things. Greater things are about Jesus, when Jesus said you will see heaven open, and angels will be going up and down, the ascending and descending is actually upon Jesus Christ. So I am discovering that when God wants to give a man greater things, and He wants to take him deeper, higher, greater and mightier, what Jesus will do, is to give such a man, a REVELATION ABOUT HIMSELF, JESUS CHRIST, He will open his eyes to behold deep things about Jesus Christ, He will take him to the mount of transfiguration, where the glories and beauties of Jesus will be unveiled before his very eyes, and from that day onward, he becomes another man.

GREATER THINGS... Many times, God is talking about heavenly things, but we are misinterpreting it to mean earthly things. Sometimes, God is talking about the bread of life - 'bread of heaven, feed me till I want no more', but man is busy interpreting it to mean the bread from the bakery. So many times that eternal things have been misconstrued by man, even by the church, to mean some carnal things. When the Lord is talking about the glories of heaven, we are busy shouting and rejoicing about the glories of the world. This is a big problem that has bedevilled the church today, it is very terrible. Our explanation of greater things is actually unreasonable to heaven, what we call great is what heaven never reckons with, and what we call small and insignificant before our eyes, is actually what heavens call great. Oh, that our eyes may be opened. Oh! that the veil may be removed completely from our eyes for us to see clearly, that spiritual things are completely opposed to physical things, and there is no meeting point between the two.

"...ye shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man"

Now, there is something here that looks very awkward to me, I don’t think I have got the depth of what this verse is actually talking about yet, it says, "you will see heaven open, and angels will ASCEND and DESCEND upon Jesus". I thought that heaven is up, and when heavens open, whatever heaven was to release should FIRST come down (or 'descend') from heaven, if Jesus now says that Angels would be released from heaven, then, those Angels of God should FIRST DESCEND upon the Son of man before they ASCEND back to heaven, but now, Jesus puts the word ASCEND before DESCEND, He says that the Angels of God will be ASCENDing and DESCENDing upon Him. With normal human knowledge, if heavens open, Angels should DESCEND, then ASCEND, but Jesus says No, the reverse is the case with divine revelations. Why did he put ascending first before the descending, there are two issues:

1. "...see heaven open,... angels... upon the Son of man"

The Jesus that is here present with us now, there are so many deep, rich things about Him, but they are all hidden away from our eyes, and unless heaven opens, no man can see those deep things. Unless God is ready to release those greater things, a man's eyes are still blind. But when God suddenly opens the heavens, a man suddenly sees beyond the physical, he sees the Angels, the angels have always been there on the Son of man going up and down, but our eyes are not blessed to behold them. When the heavens over a man's head suddenly opens, and God reveals Himself to him, all of a sudden, he sees Christ and sees the angels ascending from Him (Christ) and descending upon Him, up and down they go. This is actually a revelation about Jesus, and unless heavens open, man's perspective of Christ will remain so little and limited. Unless God begins the "greater things" and the greater work in your life, you really don't know Jesus yet, all you thought you knew of Him, are but common things for every Tom, Dick and Harry, the riches are still kept away and sealed up for the faithful few who are seeking for "greater things". But when heavens open upon you, how glorious, suddenly, you sees the angels, you see the glories, those glories are upon Christ, and they are about Christ, they begin from Christ and ascend up to heaven and back continually. Jesus is seen now as the ONLY LINK between heaven and earth, the ONLY authorized personality between man and God, the ONLY CONNECTION a man has to heaven... Lord Jesus!, open my eyes that I may see the heaven open...

2. In addition, the purpose of getting heaven open is actually for me. Even though the angels going back and forth is done upon Jesus, yet, that revelation is for me because the angelic ministrations begins from here (the ascension started from here, not from heaven), and it still culminates back here with me also. If the angels had descended first before they ascended, they would have commenced from heaven and ended up back in heaven to be gone forever, and that would have just been a cinema show, but now, it has a deep relevance upon my life. As I behold the wondrous glories of Christ, it has a permanent imprint upon me, it begins from me and it will end upon me, it will change me into another man.


When the heaven opens it is not money that will be coming out of heaven, those are smaller things, heaven does not need to open because of those little things. Jesus can easily summon Peter to go and get money from the fish' mouth, heaven did not need to open for me to get money out of the fish' mouth, those are small things, there is something greater that heaven needs to open for, and it is a revelation about Jesus, it is an understanding that is deeper about Christ, It is something that is not available on this side of life. When you are looking for greater things, what are you expecting?, when your soul is searching and crying for greater things from God, what actually do you regard as greater things? If your Pastor comes to your Church and he prays, saying "Oh God, I'm praying that heavens will be open, I'm praying that the angels of God will begin to descend upon the Son of man, I'm praying that the eyes of these people will be opened to see heavenly glories about Jesus...", and he ends his prayers there without mentioning anything about you or your needs in his prayers, will you say you have been blessed by the prayers of the man of God?

I noticed that after Jesus said these things in verse 50 - 51, that was the end of that chapter, the next thing you see there is a "full stop", and there is no other verse after that, meaning that this is the greatest thing a man can ever have from God, there is nothing greater than, or beyond this, it is the culmination of His greatest and His best for man.

This is the revelation of Scriptures, and no man can actually claim to know God by the general perceptions of men, or by the general practices we find in the numerous churches, except that which is clearly spelt out in the Bible. When a man begins to seek God through the revelations of the Bible ALONE, and not by the nominal things that religion has generally portrayed and taught men to be Christianity, then he begins to understand who actually God is.

The greater things millions look for when they seek God today is for food in the belly and cash in the pocket, it is reflected in the messages, it is shown in the prayers, it is exalted in our weekly testimonies, the Christian journals propagate it, the media publicize it, but if you go to the society, the Muslims, the free thinkers, the Mormons..., everyone is seeking the same thing - Food for the belly and cash for the pocket, but true Christianity does not seek for these things, rather, they seek for GOD HIMSELF.

I have discovered that anytime a revelation is going to come out from the mouth of Jesus Christ, such revelations are always ABOUT HIM. If God gets excited and wants to discharge wonderful, hidden treasures upon any man, check those revelations deeply, they are ALWAYS about Christ. It brings me to this conclusion that when God begins to take you deeper, when He begins to reveal His depths unto you, and begins to show you greater things, it will lead to the death of yourself. The divine working of God upon a life begins to kill the self life in other to enthrone Christ, the man begins to fade away, there will be less and less of self and more and more of Christ. The more you get to know God, the less of yourself you will become, UNTIL 'you' are totally dead, and only Jesus is seen.

The Great things about Christianity is completely opposed to that of the world. While the world seeks for physical, tangible worldly glories, the Christian goes deeper in spiritual and divine things, he begins to get lost, while Jesus begins to take his place.

If I want to judge how great, how deep you are as a child of God, my parameters are not the big things you use to surround yourself, those are trivial things, I am rather going to be checking how much of you has been crucified into Christ.

Friend, what percentage of "you" is still present in you?, how much of "you" have you let go for Christ to take over?


Prayers:

Oh God, greater things! deeper things! I want to see the revelation of Jesus, I want my life to begin to ebb away from self and let Christ begin to take His place. I want more and more and more of the glory, and of the revelations of Jesus in this life, when people look at me, they no longer see me again, all they can see is Christ, because Jesus has taken over, Jesus has captivated, saturated everything about me, and since it is 'ascending and descending', my life will eventually reflect Christ and Christ alone... Oh God none of self, all of Thee.