Eternal Glorious Fountain Ministry (EGFM)
Programme: Lekki Soul Centre (LSC)
Date: Wednesday, 13th April 2022
Ministering: Pastor Thompson Ehima
At the Eternal level, we come in as little children, which is the first state; though we might have been a man in Christ—a spiritual man. Just as we have three divisions of Christ–faith, hope and charity, we also have three divisions in Eternal Life: little children, young men and Fathers.
One cannot be a little child of Eternal, until one has received as newborn babes the sincere milk (1 Pet. 2:2). To be a little child here, one must receive the sincere milk of the word or the incorruptible seed. This is the food they give to babes to become little children in everlasting life. Whatsoever we are now hearing concerning the incorruptible seed is still the sincere milk of the word of God or of the incorruptible seed.
Naturally, when babies are birthed, they are fed with milk to grow into the state of being children. A babe does not have the ability to recognize things but relies majorly on the sense of smell. Also, in the terrain of everlasting life we might be brought some level of bread and seed but it does not necessarily mean we can use the seed yet.
As seen in the maize seed, there is some amount of milk present in the fresh grain seed. This shows that what we can use is the milk of the incorruptible seed. This milk is to help us come to a place of proper recognition. The essence of the milk of the seed of the incorruptible is to prepare us for what we are coming into, which is the partaking of the seed.
We must partake of the milk before partaking of the seed. The milk of the incorruptible seed gets processed for us to be able to grow in it. Growth is very important because we grow from being babes to being little children in the incorruptible. As a newborn, there is an allocation of the incorruptible seed that is given to us. It is important for the newborn to properly partake of the milk.
Isaiah 8:16
“Bind up the testimony, seal the law among My disciples.” Commandments are instructions given to children. Commandments are fetched out of the law. God gave the children of Israel Ten Commandments but the law was given to Moses because the law was ordained by the hand of an angel. Children cannot take laws from an angel. It took the 'man' Moses to take the law from the hand of the angel. After Moses had taken the law, commandments were brought out from it to be given to the children of Israel. The law is knowledge. Handling law is handling knowledge.
They make covenant with fathers. What goes ahead of the covenant is the law. The law is the tenet or terms of the covenant (Hebrews 8:8-10). The writing and the putting of the law in the heart and in the mind was a time of teaching the covenant and exercising the heart in the tenet or terms of the covenant, which is called the law. The incorruptible seed has its meal but it has to be broken down into commandments. Commandments are laws broken down. For example, citizens of a country can keep commandments but the lawyers know the law; they interpret laws.
Psalm 119:18
"Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of Thy law." We fetch commandments out of the law. If they give laws to a child, he cannot see wondrous things out of it because he lacks senses. This is why when we teach revelation, children can go ahead out of excitement to talk about it verbally. People with stature with not only hear revelation, but will also receive commandments out of it.
Oftentimes, God, through the Holy Ghost begins to teach us through instructions to break down the law so that we can fetch instructions out of it. Commandments, statutes and judgements are fetched from the law. A child cannot handle the judgements of a law.
(Leviticus 26:15) The people who are qualified to judge are elders and fathers. Fathers handle judgements. While judgement is also a commandment, it is a very high commandment. They fetch that commandment out of the knowledge of the law. Fathers keep commandments as judgements while young men keep commandments as statutes.
Judgement is the ability to bring many things together and resolve them. As we grow, we come into judgement. A father obeys commandments with judgement. He is also able to judge himself (Matt. 7:1). Though the child, the man and the father are handling commandments out of the law, they are not handling them in the same manner. Fathers handle commandments with sophisticated details.
Commandments carry as much detail as the stature of the person who is receiving them. Commandments, statutes and judgements are often lumped together to mean the same thing. Though they are all under the umbrella of commandments, they are not the same. They are used to calibrate the growth of the users of the commandments.
Philippians 1:8
“And this I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment...” A person that will be given judgement is someone that must have abounded in the law. To abound in the law is to abound in knowledge.
Isaiah 8:16 – 17
“Bind up the testimony, seal the law among My disciples. And I will wait upon the LORD, that hideth his face from the house of Jacob, and I will look for him”
The face of the Lord is what teaches the testimony and the law. It communicates knowledge (2 Cor. 4:6). His face brings the revelation of the testimony and the law. The testimony is bound and the law is sealed, but men wanted to have access to their contents. Since the face of the Lord was hidden from them, they sought help from wizards and those who had familiar spirits (Isa. 8:19). A man cannot seek God if he is dead. He has to be made alive.
Also, it will take a people (i.e., a people of God) to seek God (Jer. 30:22; 2 Cor. 6:16). It is only a people that can seek God. That is, such a man must have everlasting life before he can come to God. A people are those who are living. A man cannot become everlasting if he does not have the law and the testimony. The law and the testimony must speak to such a person. The testimony is also called the prophecy. The testimony of God is the spirit of prophecy; it speaks (Rev. 19:10). Prophecy is the speaking of the testimony. To speak here means to reveal. That is, prophecy reveals the testimony.
There is a covenant in Christ known as the covenant of life and peace (Mal. 2:5). This covenant is made with a father in Christ, and not a child in Christ. Those that have the covenant of life and peace are fathers in Christ. They attained this covenant by assessing the law of life and peace, which is the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus. This law changed their hearts and their minds and they became spiritually minded (Rom. 8:6). A man with the covenant of life and peace is a father in the meat of the word.
Covenants are taught as laws. Fathers are the ones they cut covenant with. What you teach as law are called light, understanding and knowledge. You teach them as knowledge until you start seeing commandments in them. You fetch commandments out of understanding; as instructions. But that is not all that commandment is all about. If you keep increasing in knowledge, you abound in the knowledge of Christ. You move from knowledge of Christ to abound in statutes. When you abound in statutes, they move you into judgments. So, there are judgments in Christ. (1 Cor. 7:25, 40).
1 Corinthians 13:4
Charity suffereth long, and is kind: charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up…
It is possible that you are doing charity and still have envy. And you can still be boastful in charity. This can be allowed for a child as a child has not started handling charity as a judgement. When you increase in knowledge, your judgement increases. The commandment comes out with more details that weren't there before, when you had limited knowledge. The meat of the word, which are the things everlasting, is knowledge. Charity is not just loving. Charity connotes a kind of person that has kept commandment from instruction to statutes and to judgment; a kind of person has been born.
When you read Romans chapter 1 and 2, they were describing persons. The essence of this is that we must watch out, as we are increasing in knowledge.
Romans 1:21
Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. If we say we know God, it should spur us to be thankful. If we are not thankful, it shows that something is wrong somewhere. So rather than thanking God, they began to glory in what they know.
(Jeremiah 9:23-24) This is talking about characters which must be shown. We need to be deliberate about them. (James 3:13) A believer needs to watch out to know if he is keeping commandments. It must be shown out of a good conversation. The conversation in that passage is works - meekness of wisdom.
It is possible to check for these attributes in a believer as one can tell when these things are violated. The greatest fear exists when people who initially knew God could not glorify Him as God (Rom. 1:21). This happened because they had knowledge but rejected commandments. Thanksgiving is one crucial example.
(Matthew 11:25) Every time Jesus had a new revelation of the Father, He thanked Him. This ought to be the attitude of people who understand commandments. Thanking God is a commandment. It is important for a believer to not to be caught in the thought that the knowledge being received from God is as a result of his several sacrifices. Moreover, thanking God reveals our understanding of commandments. The commandment of the knowledge of God is that a believer should be thankful. If we genuinely break into more revelations, we ought to be more grateful.
It is clear that commandments can only be from the law. Law is knowledge or light (Isaiah 8:20, Psalm 119:11,130). More emphatically, the teaching of the law is the giving of knowledge and understanding. It is out of the law that commandments ought to be fetched at every level of the word: from milk to the meat to the strong meat of the word. It is seen that the everlasting God has commandments. It is impossible to talk about everlasting life without the commandments of the everlasting God.
In the realm of everlasting, there are little children, young men and the father. So, there should be a progression in this realm. One needs to keep increasing in life. Just as the end of the commandment of Christ which is charity cannot be abandoned (1 Tim. 1:5), it is necessary to progress from charity to everlasting.
In previous teachings, it was shown that the first work and the last work of everlasting life are love commandments. The first work is love. The last work is love. However, John said the last work is greater than the first. John called the loving-kindness in Jeremiah 9:24 the love of the Father (1 John 2:15).
God exercises Himself by walking in loving-kindness, judgement and righteousness on the earth. If the Lord does not observe loving-kindness, every man on the earth would have been wiped out because of the growing decadence. Humans prefer swift judgment for the wrongs men do on the earth. But God has lovingkindness, not willing for any to perish (2 Pet. 3:9). It is a commandment that God is keeping. These commandments are judgements (Matthew 5:45).
What informs a man’s judgment is sin and death. Hence, the scriptures described charity as a person (1 Cor. 13). These attributes of charity is an exercise of godliness. It is a building up of laws, until it became statutes, then judgement and eventually it becomes the state of a person in his conversation. God also has a personality: “the express image of His Person…” (Heb. 1:3).
2 Peter 3:11
"Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness…"
Everlasting life is a person and everlasting life would raise a person or produce a kind of personality (like Him). But a person or people can only be produced when the commandments or instructions given to one as a child are kept. And when he becomes a man, he keeps statutes and then judgement. This principle applies to every dispensation of God's word from milk to strong meat of the word of God.
A man can bring forth fruit. When he does, God prunes him to bring forth more fruit (John 15:2). But he can move from “more fruit” to “much fruit”. "Much" is different from "more". Much is abundance. A man can be a branch and bears fruit. The Father will come and prune him. Then, he will bring forth more fruit and will now abide; which is to move from just living or being a branch in God. What he is abounding in is commandments; it is the changing of commandments from instructions into statutes into judgement.
In the Old Testament, a man can sacrifice his burnt offering while another can do the same but with salt or bread added to his. God will accept both because an obedience is fulfilled. But the burnt offering alone without meat offering is not the same. The latter is richer. So, when things are added to the works we do (2 Pet. 1:5-7), our works become richer. It is different from our first works because judgement has increased. So last works are greater than first works. What leads to last (greater) works is a richer commandment of first works; because first work is given as a child in everlasting life.
However, when a man has been trained with more knowledge, he is given more knowledge on how the same commandment he did as first works can be carried out well. We can do commandments and do it well, more well and much well. So, the difference between first works and last works is how it is done: the details, attitude and gravity of doing.
So, the consciousness and consecration involved in doing commandments is what God marks as a higher work than what has been previously done. To men it can appear like the same commandment is being done over and over again, but to God the patience, brotherly kindness, endurance, knowledge etc., added makes the difference. When these things are added, there's a shift in the heart and calibration in the mind that suddenly wells up a joy and removes a veil to enable us to do commandments better.
So, we need to stay as a branch (in Christ) in the vine which is the Father (the Son). When we do, we bring forth fruit. As a branch, we are living inside the vine; obeying and keeping commandments. But this commandment is not enough; God will then come to prune us. His coming to prune us is to add to us and to take things away. Then we bring forth more fruit and then we abide. The only branch that can abide is the one that can bring forth more fruit. A man won't start abiding if he can't bring forth more fruit.
God's servant Rev. Kayode Oyegoke taught some time ago from Malachi 3 about those who can abide God's coming. Those who can abide God's coming are those who are bringing forth more fruit. Levi, even though they were holy, still had things that God wanted to purge because not all can abide (Mal. 3:3). God can still come to purify you to move from bringing more fruit to bringing forth much fruit in everlasting life (John 15:5). This is what God wants to do to us.
Summary
1. The essence of the milk of the incorruptible seed is to prepare us for what we are coming into, which is the partaking of the seed. The milk of the incorruptible seed gets processed for us to be able to grow in it.
2. As a newborn, there is an allocation of the incorruptible seed that is given to us. It is important for the newborn to properly partake of the milk.
3. They make covenant with fathers. What goes ahead of the covenant is the law. The law is the tenet or terms of the covenant (Hebrews 8:8-10).
4. In the realm of everlasting, there are little children, young men and fathers. So, there should be a progression in this realm. One needs to keep increasing in life.
5. Everlasting life is a person and everlasting life would raise a person or produce a kind of personality (like Him). But a person or people can only be produced when the commandments or instructions given to one as a child are kept.
6. When a child becomes a man, he keeps statutes and then judgement. This principle applies to every dispensation of God's word from milk to strong meat of the word of God.
7. What leads to last (greater) works is a richer commandment of first works; because first work is given as a child in everlasting life. So, the difference between first works and last works is how it is done: the details, attitude and gravity of doing.
8. A man can bring forth fruit. When he does, God prunes him to bring forth more fruit (John 15:2). But he can move from “more fruit” to “much fruit”.