THE HIDDEN MANNA

In my article, The Academy of Heaven, I offered an allegorical explanation of how the saints are prepared for their diverse responsibilities in the coming earthly kingdom of their Lord. This was in the form of the post-Rapture consummation of the relationship between them (the Bride Church) and their Groom (the Lord Jesus Christ). There is, however, another scriptural indication of this preparatory experience that affords a deeper appreciation of the subject. It is another promise contained in the same Seven Letters of the Revelation in which Christ promised dominion over the nations to every believer that overcomes by Him.

This other promise is one that has been given little consideration, possibly because of its apparent vagueness. The Lord said: “To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna, and will give him a white stone, and in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth save he that receiveth it” (Revelation 2:17).

This privilege of the victorious saints partaking of the “hidden manna” is yet another symbolic representation of their preparatory experience for their millennial reign with their Lord. Coming to think of it, the language is in agreement with Solomon’s rendition of my previous allegorical explanation, where the Bride says, “As the apple tree among the trees of the wood, so is my beloved among the sons. I sat down under his shadow with great delight, and his fruit was sweet to my taste. He brought me to the banqueting house, and his banner over me was love” (Song of Solomon 2:3-4). Truly, “Jesus has a table spread, where the saints of God are fed” with the “hidden manna,” or the “fruit” or His “apple tree”!

This privilege of partaking of the “hidden manna” is the same infilling of the saints, their empowerment to be productive, that I spoke of in The Academy of Heaven. It is the implantations of the seed of the all-embracing knowledge of the divine Groom that will enable the Bride Church to got forth and bear bountiful fruits in the promised kingdom. And just as the Groom and Bride have been involved in a measure of “love play” in the present Christian dispensation – prior to the post-Rapture consummation of their relationship – even so has the Church been enjoying a foretaste of this heavenly manna and doing some measure of exploits in the name of their Lord.

If you have been closely following this site and are a good student of the Scriptures, you might have identified a strong witness of this interpretation of the Lord’s promise of the overcomer partaking of the hidden manna that I am offering here. You might have discerned a relationship between what I have said and that glorious revelation of the secret behind the saints’ awesome exploits in the promised kingdom, as unveiled in my Horsepower series.  As I bore out in that series, the kingdom exploits of the saints would stem from their supernatural empowerment by their individual Angels, depicted in the horses that the Revelation pictures them as riding to repossess the “Paradise Lost” – a loss that occurred when Adam and Eve partook of the fruit of the Tree that bequeaths knowledge contrary to the divine programme.

The link is in something the Psalmist wrote about the children of Israel’s procession to possess the Promised Land of Canaan, a type of the saints’ procession to possess the millennial kingdom: “And [God] had rained down manna upon them to eat, and had given them of the corn of heaven. Man did eat angels’ food”! (Psalm 78:24,25.) Do Angels eat in Heaven? I don’t know. And I don’t know how He did it. But, somehow, the Almighty precipitated that manna and gave those pilgrims on the way to possess the promise a foretaste of angelic empowerment! It was with that power injected into their bloodline that they did marvellous things on the way, possessed the Promised Land and dominated its environs! But, as implied, it was only a shadow of more marvellous things to come, and so they tasted and demonstrated only so much of it. The redeemed saints, however, are going for the “hidden manna,” the full measure of angelic empowerment hidden, or held back, since the Fall! (See Horsepower.)

That’s my revelation of the Lord’s promise of the overcomer partaking of the hidden manna. It is a promise of partaking of the seed power of Angels, which, by means we may not comprehend now, blossoms into a full manifestation and demonstration of the capacities of our angelic powerhouses, which we have had limited access to since the Fall. The apostle was brilliant in describing it as “the spirits of just men made perfect.” Each human spirit, perhaps the residue of the supernatural power left to sustain the human vessel after the Fall, is perfected by its nourishment and empowerment by the angelic spirit predestined to the vessel in the beginning. “But ye are come unto Mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect” (Hebrews 12:22,23).

No doubt, there is a present significance of the preceding Scripture passage, but what I am applying it to here is far beyond anything we have experienced in the present Christian dispensation. As the apostle wrote, “Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep [or “hidden”] things of God” (I Corinthians 2:9,10).

In closing we will note that the Lord did not only promise the overcomer the privilege of partaking of the hidden manna, but adds: “And [I] will give him a white stone, and in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth save he that receiveth it.” Wow! Here’s another poser for us! A name known to no one other than he who receives it. That’s quite a name. To fill up the cup, it is contained in, of all things, a “white stone”!

God willing, we will take a shot at this mystery name in my next article. So keep the faith and remain posted – and pray for me.

God bless you always.

In the King’s Service,

David Olagoke Olawoyin.

NB: My coming book THE COMING GLORY presents a detailed and chronological examination of this awesome kingdom agenda of the Almighty that we have been peeping into on this site. Please join me in prayer for its speedy publication.