The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, as it is written in the prophets, Behold, I send my messenger before thy face, which shall prepare thy way before thee.[Mark 1:1-2]

"...gospel of Jesus..."

The gospel is the preaching of the man Jesus. It is the presentation of a personality, Jesus Christ unto men. What those who accepted the gospel received, is the person of Jesus Christ Himself. It is not just about doing good, changing your way, or turning a new leaf, it is receiving a PERSON, JESUS CHRIST.

The gospel is not about any man or any church. The gospel is the "good news". The news is good, not because it puts money in your pocket, not because it builds a mansion for you or because it establishes you as a big man in the world. The gospel is the good news because it gave us Jesus, the end to our sins and struggles, the end to the life in the flesh. The news is good because it saves us from who we were to become like Him. The news is good because the purpose of God for creation which was shattered at the Garden of Eden, whereby man lost his crown (the image of God) to the devil, that divine purpose was restored in Christ. The power of sin that held men captive for centuries was finally broken. Now we have liberty to be who we were created to be. Amen!
The gospel needs to be preached properly, or else, we may be gathering men with no spiritual focus. Men may come, but their excitement will not be about Jesus. A church not given to preaching Jesus, will never be establishing the kingdom of God in the hearts of men. It will rather be growing the ephemeral earthly kingdom: getting lands, buying cars, building empires and securing breakthroughs...

"...Jesus Christ...Son of God…"

The gospel is the means to God. Jesus is the One who reveals God because He is God. All that the gospel imparts and reveals is God. That gospel which makes a man more earthly conscious rather than making him more like Jesus in every ramification is not the true gospel. Christ was humble and lowly. He did the will of the Father, lived a holy life, exposed the works of darkness, gave life and health. This is what the gospel will achieve in the life of anyone who receives it.

"The beginning of the gospel, I send my messenger, prepare the way of the Lord…"

The Bible is revealing something about "the beginning" of the gospel of Jesus Christ, and it takes us back to what is written in the prophets about Johns preparation of the way. I was thinking that THE BEGINNING OF THE GOSPEL is Jesus Christ Himself, but the Bible here contrarily says that the beginning is the preparation of the way for Jesus Christ. The beginning was the forerunner. It was committed into the hands of John, to prepare the path which Jesus Christ would follow on arrival. The gospel will never begin in any life except at the true beginning, which is the point when a voice will come unto him to prepare his heart for the arrival of Jesus Christ. The true beginning of Gods kingdom within men is about God finding a voice to declare and reveal Jesus. Jesus is ready to be made manifest unto many lives, but for this Jesus to be revealed, there must first be a beginner a voice to herald Him, a preacher to show Him, and a messenger send ahead to prepare His way.

As great as Christ is, He will not begin in any life unless the message has gone forth through a messenger that prepared His way. Did you not discover that your acceptance of Jesus is largely depended on how you received Him or through whom you received Him? If you accepted Jesus, but He is not so real unto you, it is because of the weakness of the messenger, the voice who prepared His way in your heart. There is no other path for Christ to follow, except the one prepared by the messenger who had gone ahead. If the messenger prepared nothing, then Christ simply has no way to pass into the lives of men. If the messenger, the beginner prepared a little way, then those who received Jesus through him would see Jesus as little. If you were deeply affected when you received Christ, then, the preacher did real work on the manner and the spirit with which he proclaimed Christ to you.

"...as it is written ... saying, The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be brought low, and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways shall be made smooth, and all flesh shall see the salvation of God... Bring forth therefore fruits worthy of repentance..." [Luke 3:4-7]

It is clear from the above passage that man, through his activity or inactivity, determines to a large extent how God will move and operate in the land when He comes. Man largely determines what God will do, and the path He will take anytime He shows up. Before Jesus would show up, John was sent ahead to begin the process of His coming. The Bible speaks about the things that John was to do before Jesus would be revealed. In the same vein, if Christ is to be revealed in any life, the instructions here are prerequisites to His revelation:

1. Prepare ye the way of the Lord.
John was to prepare the way of The Lord. Illustrating this, it is as if the whole land is filled with darkness without sight for direction. John was therefore sent to illuminate the path that Christ will follow as He comes, by installing light bulbs on the way. Alternatively, It is like everywhere is very bushy, and if Christ must come, somebody must go ahead to clear a road through the thick bush, so that there will be a path for Christ to follow. So John was sent ahead into a thick forest called the world, where darkness had reigned for about 400 years. He was to clear the pathway for Jesus to pass. If he refused and did nothing, then, there was no way for Christ to pass even when He comes. Jesus will not just come arbitrarily. There must be a voice that will go before Him to prepare His way. No matter what Jesus was to do, unless His John had gone ahead to clear the way before Him, He would have no road to pass. Man is very crucial therefore in the purpose of God in the land. God will only work because man the beginner has prepared the way.

2. Make His paths straight.
It was not just enough to clear a path for Christ to follow. The Bible says that the paths must be made straight. The messenger sent to herald the coming of Christ must be very careful when creating the way in the thick bush for His coming. He must make sure that the road he is creating is perfect. The road must be straight. It must not be meandering or wobbling. The path a man creates for the coming Lord is the one He will eventually pass when He comes, whether straight or crooked. It is necessary therefore to be very careful in selecting Gods messenger. Whosoever will be “a voice in the wilderness” must not be compromised. If a covetous man should grab this post, he will create a path that will lead to his own pocket, and when Christ comes, unfortunately, Christ will simply follow the same covetous path.

With a panoramic view at the Christian fold, different churches emphasize different things, and they seem to be prospering in the areas where they have heavily laid emphasis. What the leadership of the churches (the beginners) set their eyes on and craved for as their passionate desire was what formed their pursuit. The path that the man of God prepared for Jesus was exactly the path Jesus followed when He finally showed up, either straight or crooked.
It is very imperative to make sure that the path you are creating ahead for Christ to pass is a straight one because even if you create a crooked one, when Christ comes, He will still follow your path. You would have led many astray into the bush, thinking that “since Christ came, then I must be right”. The world is thickly dark with a dire need of revival. God is willing and ready to send the fire, but WHO will prepare the path for the revival to descend? It is the responsibility of Gods messengers to MAKE straight path for Jesus into the hearts of men. The road you prepare will determine the path Jesus will follow when He comes. The only straight path that John must prepare is the path of Righteousness, Restoration and Revival. The straight path is the one that leads directly to the kingdom of heaven. Once the path is not straight, no matter how beautiful, clean, glorious that road is it will never lead to the kingdom of God. It will meander away from the narrow way and lead men astray. Sometimes, The Lords John has gone ahead to prepare a CURVED road ahead of Jesus, and unfortunately, as Jesus arrives, He simply follows the curved road made for Him, which terminates here on earth. Some examples of curved roads today are:

A. Financial Prosperity :
This is a road that terminates in this world. It is a beautiful road, but it is NOT STRAIGHT. It is meandering, and leads nowhere eternal. Many preachers called of God began by preparing the way of the Lord, but they did not make His path straight. They deviated and diverted the road along the line by establishing MONEY rather than JESUS. They might have started up with a straight path, but when difficulties came while preparing the way perhaps, they met a big tree or deep gulf on the path, they felt a need to divert a little rather than suffer to uproot the tree. Maintaining a straight path for Jesus became a tall order for them, so they meandered into prosperity preaching. Believe it or not, when Jesus came, He had no other option than to simply follow the same curved path that was created for Him to pass. When you see a particular Assembly or church where prosperity is hugely emphasized, that is the path they have created for Christ to take. Even though the path is curved, yet, there is nothing Christ would do but to follow His forerunners path. So you will find several financially prosperous people in that assembly because Jesus came. But it is a pity that even though Jesus is there, He can only follow the prosperity path laid out for Him. He has been incapacitated by His John, hence, He could not bless men with the heavenly (straight) purpose why He came.

B. Deliverance:
When men concentrate so much on the devil, and the devil enjoys more publicity than Jesus in an Assembly. When the message of the cross is not preached, and men take the bull by the horn in their own strength “to deal with their enemy” without recognizing the victory that Christ secured over the devil at the cross, When the devil is not seen as an already defeated foe, but as strong, powerful enemy that can overthrow even Jesus unless some powerful prayers are organized, When Christians are unfortunate and are at the mercy of the devil every day, When it is deliverance sessions people use to settle issues instead of seeing the Victory at the Cross through simple revelations of Gods word…, surely, the path created by the man of God in that Assembly, is a very wobbled, zigzagging and meandering one. Christians concentrate on the flesh rather than the Spirit. You hear so much about demonic attack for which they have to pray special prayers even among believers. Occult powers are working so much against so called Christians, so they have to labour daily to overcome the devil and push him out. Christs victory is not recognized as a finished issue, but reduced to something powerless unless men have worked. We try hard by sweating to help Jesus complete His works, what a big slap on God! These are curved roads. Many have made themselves deliverance experts on the curved road leading nowhere. Surprisingly, as Jesus showed up, the only path He could take was the “demonically exalted path” prepared for Him by the man of God. So, many of these deliverance concentrations appear to be very effective sometimes. But their effectiveness does not mean it is the perfect plan of God. It was only a meandered path that Jesus had been constrained and incapacitated to follow by his forerunner.

3. Every valley filled, every mountain, hill brought low, crooked paths straight, rough ways made smooth…”

The divine mandate for Gods John is very clear. As he creates a straight path for Christ to pass, there will be seeming difficulties he will encounter. These are unavoidable evils, seeing that the land has been barren and in darkness for about 400 years between Malachi and Matthew where there was no voice or prophecies from God. So much sugar-coated sins had grown that must be dealt with. John is not to meander the road in order to pass the easiest possible path. The road must be kept straight. You are not to deviate from revealing unto men the person of Jesus Christ in all His fullness and righteousness just because of persecutions, intimidations or rejection. You are not to preach money, comfort and better life just because people are in need. Where there are valleys and gullies, exemplified by emptiness, lack of the knowledge of God, inactivity, looseness, free-thinking, things being taken for granted, lack of seriousness about godly things, lack of the knowledge and desire about heaven these valleys must be filled. And where there are high mountainous hills exemplified by superstitions, traditions, legalisms, erroneous beliefs that have been solidly erected over the years, the reign of self, pride, establishment of false worship, strongholds of the devil, fetish and demonic presence all those mountains and hills must be made plain. Many times, instead of pulling down all strongholds, stamping out occultism and filling the valleys with Gods knowledge, we lazily allow these things to continue. We carefully dodge anything that will bring problems and disagreements. Christianity and paganism now coexist! This is the height of compromise.

We must confront the valleys and fill them up. We must confront the mountains and make them plain. All crooked places must be made straight and all rough places plain and smooth. No hidden hypocrisy, no personal agenda, no selfish motive, nothing covered up, nothing hidden behind the mask, but wrapped with good name as if it was for Gods glory. No quest for self-glory or exaltation, everything must be made straight. The man of God must never be operating just to make a name for self. He must not be looking for miracles just to asset his authority, proof his bigness, or to make a name for his church (not Jesus). All the flamboyance, pomp and excessive lifestyles that men of God live to show off, are part of the crooked ways that must be made straight. The focus must turn away from self to Jesus.

"…the salvation of God."

Wherever the gospel of Jesus is properly preached, and a straight path is prepared for the Lord, the outcome will be very glaring and beautiful. All flesh will see the salvation of God. The joy of the Lord will be strength of believers. Men will begin to trust in God, rather than in uncertain riches.

"…multitude… came forth to be baptized of him…"

Whoa! Multitudes? How did John suddenly gather untold number of people together? Did he invite them? Did he do some publicity? Even if he did, who would come to him with the unpopular message he was preaching?
John simply concentrated on preparing the way for The Lord. He focused all his attention on making Christs pathway straight, leveling up mountains and smoothening every crookedness. People would automatically be attracted to any clean beautiful road without much invitation, so he concentrated on just that. John knew clearly that nobody would want to take a thickly bush path if there were better roads. He concentrated on creating the best possible roads where accidents will be eliminated and stresses will be eradicated for pedestrians who before now, had to climb hills, descend valleys and suffer cuts from sharp edges of the bushy roads.

When there is a new tarred road created by the government, such roads will be a joy to use. Motorists who had endured hell with the other rough roads would be so happy to divert to the new road quickly. Within a very short while, everybody in town would have heard and known about the new road without publicity. To get motorists, cyclists and pedestrians to ply a road is not an issue at all. You need no publicities about it. The only thing you need to concentrate on is to build the good road, and men would come switching quickly to it.
John concentrated on building a beautiful road for Christ. Immediately, multitudes came to enjoy the liberty of a stress-free, victorious life in Jesus. John was not spending money or his life on publicities and cajoling men, No, he spent it on building the road. His works were visible to all without invitation. Multitudes who had groped in darkness came hungrily in quest for survival and revival.

NOTE: CONCENTRATE ON BUILDING A CORRECT ROAD FOR JESUS, AUTOMATICALLY, MULTITUDES WILL THRONG THAT ROAD TO FIND JESUS WITHOUT ANY CARNAL PUBLICITIES. IF YOU HAD TO ENGAGE YOURSELF IN CARNAL PUBLICITIES, IT IS BECAUSE THE ROAD YOU HAVE BUILT IS NOT CLEARLY VISIBLY STRAIGHT, SO YOU NEEDED SOME SUGAR-COATING TO AUGMENT IT.

Today, many Johns are not preparing the way of The Lord. They may be shouting, but since there is no repentance message on their lips, they are only making a crooked path for The Lord. Men are only changing their styles without any divine touch upon them. The Israelites came to the water with their religious regalia, thinking that having a touch of the water on their bodies would satisfy God, but God was not interested in that, He wanted a relationship, an encounter with Him.