Programme: Anamnesis 2023 (Day 2 - Morning Session)
Date: Thursday, 7th December, 2023
We are in a season where the Lord is opening wells of salvation for our generation and many generations to partake in.
“And seeing the multitudes, he went up into a mountain: and when he was set, his disciples came unto him: and he opened his mouth, and taught them, saying, Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven”. (Matt. 5:1-3). The dictionary meaning of being poor is in contrast with what Jesus meant in this scripture. The dictionary defines the poor as people who lack sufficient money to live up to a standard considered comfortable or normal in the society. We can see how the world introduces a veil by their definitions of the subject. There is a misplaced definition of every word after the fall. The definition of life, love and other matters was veiled by the world after the fall.
“And these things write we unto you, that your joy may be full. This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all”. (1 John 1:4-5). The men written to in this scripture are men of the earth; they are like Adam. The first man was "of the earth earthy" (1 Corin. 15:47). Such men are those who should use the light; this means Adam also needed what can also be called ‘spirit’. Blessed are those who realize they are lacking in spirit or lacking a law. What makes a man poor is that he lacks a writing, a law, and a life. Such a man cannot give life; he may be able to give mundane things but he is poor. Every definition that Jesus gave was not in agreement with the definitions the world gave.
“Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently: being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever”. (1 Pet. 1:22-23). This is a way a believer is meant to address his lack of a life and a law. Every soul has two natures: laws and contents of spirit that they like to be addressed. So, after we have gone through a purification, we need to perfect the course of purification. After we have perfected the course of purification, we would be made poor in spirit and brought to an estate where we would be able to see God. The whole thesis we read in Matthew 5 addresses how a believer can see God. By seeing God, a believer becomes a light, because what is in God is light.
When we perfect the course of being redeemed from the earth, we would have an unfeigned faith — a faith that is sincere, or a faith that is free from sin.
“Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently…” (1 Pet. 1:22). The verse above talks about a first birth which will make a believer a carrier of a first law. What makes a believer poor is that he lacks a law; we cannot give what we do not have. When the early church came to know about the faith that pertains to the milk of the word, the Bible talks about how they began to have all things in common. They were giving their substances but were not yet giving life. The giving of your substances is a good exercise to prepare your soul for a higher substance; it is by that substance the soul would be able to give life.
The milk faith is to exercise us. We should be able to exercise ourselves, give life, and witness to the conversation of light. What the world needs is light and life. The conversation of light is a kind of conversation that should have filled the earth but for the fall of man. The Lord has designed that these conversations would be found among the children of God.
There is a difference between loving our brethren and loving our neighbours with a pure heart fervently. Another word for this is witnessing to light (Eph. 5:8). This means at a season, what a believer could give was darkness, which was a kind of light; but by virtues of the preaching of Christ (revelation of the truth in Christ), a believer can carry a seed through trimesters. However, it is only in the third trimester that the seed will be developed enough to become a law. As such, the soul begins to walk differently.
When we commit to the obedience of faith, where laws are rewritten in us, we would then see that we are poor. So like Jesus said, we can be the light of the world, because what the world needs is light. The Lord wants to bring us to a place where we can birth light.
Paul laboured around precepts like the servant of God in our midst is doing, but there is another labour around ways which would cause the spirit of the word to be birthed. The moment the waters of life have been gathered, the soul has been edged. Dealings are so that the waters of lie we have gathered can become life — that knowledge can become a tangible life.
Many of us went through seasons of delays and denials. In those seasons, we could not use the exploits of faith that pertain to the milk of the word; this is because if God permits that, we would not grow. The Lord uses our needs to train us out of what limits us so that we can let go of our need to take His needs. His need is to see men become light like He was a light. Our needs are insatiable and unending, but God only has one need. God's need is that the life of the Godhead would become the light of man. Our needs are what Satan uses to enslave us so that we do not see the need of God.
Our need is a bait the Lord can use to drag us to Him. He knows what needs mean to us and what His need is meant to mean to us. He knows what our “Isaacs” are. “Isaac” can be childbirth for some and the Lord can use it to save them in order to show that salvation is higher than their need. For some of us, there is something we desire the most and that is where God will hide.
There is an expectation in natural terms or spiritual terms that God can pull to teach us patience or help us to add virtues to ourselves, whether in the season of carrying the seed of Christ or of carrying the word of God. God knows the prayers we want Him to answer, but He would delay it because it is what He has found to make us His friend, like He did for Abraham.
Abraham was 99 years old when God appeared to him concerning his need which was about 15 years after God started with him. God used fifteen years to deal with one need and work salvation in Abraham. The dealing God brought to Abraham is still available and is what they are administering to us in the spirit. Some who have not identified the waters see this process of collecting idols from us and run away, but it is the only thing God can use to collect our idols from us.
The business of collecting our idols continues until we become a temple of God. After we have done faith, hope and charity, and even after fervent charity; there are still some idols that have not been dealt with. They can only be dealt with when we move from unfeigned faith to unfeigned love of the brethren (1 Pet. 1:22).
The word of Christ deals with our motive to a good degree, but the Word of God does much more. When the motive for following the Lord has been purified, everything we are doing would be translated to life. We did not begin the business of gathering life early because we were not sincere. As long as what you are looking for is not life, you are not sincere. We are in the season wherein we have the sense that we would begin to look for life in every conversation. When the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has been awakened in a man, he begins to look for life in every conversation, and it is to that degree that the soul will live.
Two expressions of life are being spoken about in 1 Peter 1:22: a measure of life we fetch while we are with a pure heart, fervently loving our brethren, and another measure of life we will fetch while obeying another truth. There are two truths we would end up obeying and would be rightly divided in us; these are the truth in Christ that would make us godly men and the truth of God that would make us beloved sons.
Even if one might have had a measure of life that can enable him to give light in some conversations, he may not have the measure of life that will enable him to respond in some other occasions. This has been a motivation for some of us to keep on pressing on in these waters. There are some demands for life in our days that we cannot respond to because we cannot give what we do not have.
We still need to be poor again in the spirit and desire the Spirit of the Father called “My Spirit” (Ezek. 36:27). “My Spirit” is what would be given to them that would love their brethren fervently. In this season, many have found grace to walk in charity towards their brethren, but the same brethren will grow to become the brethren in the Most Holy Place where a higher love walk is demanded. The warfare in the Holy Place and the Most Holy Place differs as the Lord wants to raise the brethren, the prophets.
The midst of the Church is where God is raising those who will be an answer to His prayer — for His enemies to be made His footstool (Ps. 110:1, Heb. 10:13). To deal with the nature that was not previously dealt with in the Holy Place, we need the help that only the High Priest can offer. We need to talk to the Lord to help us. The commandment of loving the brethren looks grievous to us, though it is because of our frame and the absence of a law; this would be addressed when we are poor again in the spirit, and we are blessed with the Spirit of the Father.
What enables us to love the brethren in the sanctuary is a spirit that was born in us when we came of age. Whenever a birth process is completed, a spirit is born. In this season, the Lord wants to make those who have the wealth of the Holy Place to become truly wealthy by virtue of them being able to possess the law.
“For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people…” (Heb. 8:10). We constitute the house of Israel that the Lord wants to raise and make the house of God by the giving of His laws, ways and spirits; and that process is another birth process that would make us a company of the brethren or prophets that the Lord is raising. The seed that Adam could not carry to term is what the Lord is bringing to us. This is so that we can finish that same work like Jesus did; it is so that the Law that found itself into our Lord Jesus can find its way into us for the first time.
Blessings!