Programme: Anamnesis 2023 (Day 3 - Morning Session)
Date: Friday, 8th December, 2023
The emphasis to us in this season has been the coming of the Lord. There is the Lord’s expectation for us in His coming to us. What happened in Genesis 1 concerning God’s intention for man is what came back in the gospels. Genesis 1:26-31 was a visitation. God formed a man, but that man did not have the image and likeness that He intended.
There was something upon man that made him God’s choice to carry His image. Angels are in God’s likeness but not in God’s image. An angel like Michael is an angel of God’s likeness but not of His image. The angels already make up the throne of God (in the present creation) as described in Psalm 103. Thus, God’s throne has already been ordered.
"The LORD hath prepared his throne in the heavens; and his kingdom ruleth over all. [20]Bless the LORD, ye his angels, that excel in strength, that do his commandments, hearkening unto the voice of his word. [21]Bless ye the LORD, all ye his hosts; ye ministers of his, that do his pleasure. [22]Bless the LORD, all his works in all places of his dominion: bless the LORD, O my soul." (Ps. 103:19-22). “O my soul” is the last in that order of God's throne. Many Christians have an assumption that someone going to heaven is going to rest. The throne of God is active eternally. The throne is the centre of God’s government which comes from within Him. It is the centre of His life.
By saying man should have dominion, God meant that man ought to ascend to be part of His throne that is before creation (Gen. 1:26). When we carry God’s image and likeness, we carry His very nature and become part of God who is before creation. Before creation, He was the Eternal God — the only entity before creation. It is after creation that we see God’s angels and His ministers, all of which come after the Eternal order of the Godhead. The promise of Eternal Life has been in the mind of the Godhead before the world began (Titus 1:2). It means that man is meant to be part of the throne that has been before creation. However, man was placed as the least and was made a living soul in creation. As great as the living soul is, it is less than all the angels.
"To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne. [22]He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches." (Rev. 3:21-22). There is a throne that Jesus calls "My throne" and there is His "Father’s throne". That throne existed before creation began. It is a throne that angels do not know anything about. The ‘Father’ referred to in Revelation 3:21 is the Eternal Father, not the everlasting Father. That throne is not a prepared throne but the throne that He is. This is where life was before things were made.
So if the throne is a place of government, then it means that there was a government that was before the present order of government. Government is a place of service. It is not just a place of rulership but also a place of administration. The strength of the national government is administration.
"Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this." (Isa. 9:7). A throne has to do with order — how things ought to be. Order, justice and judgement are the things that have to do with a throne. A throne is a place of service. If a person is not in that service, there is no place for him/her in that throne. The throne is an administration. A throne without administration is formless. The strength of a throne is administration, service or servants.
The word "dominion" gives us a sense of exertion, lordship, or rulership and that is how the system of this world operates. But this has nothing to do with service in Jesus’ kingdom because the essence of His kingdom is for the flow of life to all. So all we do is to administrate how that life will find expression to every creature that will appoint it. Dominion is not to push out everybody and be the owner of a place, rather, it is meant to express a life. For example, the dominion of fishes is a place for observing how aquatic life operates.
Satan was not trying to dethrone God, he only wanted to be part of that ultimate system. He wanted to serve in a place where there would not be secrets anymore from him. But he was not created to desire such a thing because that desire is a disservice. It is not about what we do but about what God wants us to be. Anything that is done that inflicts disorder on the throne is a disservice. It is a long-defined ordination that man will be integrated to the throne of God. The highest thing any creation can be is to serve God. This is why we will not be worshipped.
Jesus shares the nature of both the Creator and the creation; this is why He can receive worship. Our own manner of sons will not be worshipped. We are going to be son-servants, not creator-servants. Our ordination is to serve the Eternal God. Jesus came down, relinquished all He had and became part of us to show us how our order is meant to sit with Him on His throne. If we sit on His throne and worship Him, we will not be worshipped because all things will go to God under whom we are all subdued (1 Cor. 15:28). By reason of what would be done to us, we would not even have the courage to receive worship because only God will be served and worshipped (Lk. 4:8).
It is a great honour for a creature at the lowest level to be integrated into the service system that was before the world began. It is not easy to move into the world of Eternal Life because it is enclosed from creation. No one has a previous understanding of it, not even the angels. The angels are still looking into things that pertain to salvation, not even reward. They are looking into salvation that is unlike any that they have seen (1 Pet. 1:12).
We are called to be son-servants. We will serve God eternally. Some of us want to serve now, and later rest. Service is not the way to the top; it is the way of the top. The nature of God Himself cannot make Him ease out of service. God’s throne is forever and the sceptre of His kingdom is righteousness (Ps. 45:6). His righteousness is everlasting and does not wane. The last thing that will be our joy is to be integrated into the ultimate service. It is servants that seek to please the master. We will not look for Him if our hearts are not connected and integrated with the awareness that service is our calling throughout our lives.
“And he shewed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb. [2]In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. [3]And there shall be no more curse: but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it; and his servants shall serve him: [4]And they shall see his face; and his name shall be in their foreheads. [5]And there shall be no night there; and they need no candle, neither light of the sun; for the Lord God giveth them light: and they shall reign for ever and ever.” (Rev. 22:1-5). It is clear that a people would reign forever, in service. The first chapter of Genesis and the last chapter of Revelation speak of the same thing. The Bible is a manual for men who want to serve eternally. The burden is that we have a church that is not aware of spiritual service. Some men are pursuing a vision consistently for years without receiving progressive revelation. However, in the book of service, manuals are upgraded from time to time. Even in natural service, we often do not use a manual for years without upgrading it. The curriculum for how things are ordered and how knowledge should be dispensed is continually upgraded. This is because knowledge is progressive and the challenges of life are dynamic. Hence, we need to have a system that is dynamic.
There is a curse upon men that limits them from meeting up with God’s service. Service is the calling of God for man. But a spirit, Lucifer, succeeded in turning man away from meeting up with the service requirements of God. Thus, man is unable to generate a service that is perfect before God.
“I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.” (Rom. 12:1). We are meant to serve God with our bodies, which includes the spirit, soul and body. These three make up our bodies. It is not accurate to serve God with our spirits only, we should also serve God with our souls and bodies. The phrase "acceptable to God" implies that was a reasonable service to them at that point. And even though it was a good beginning service, it was not the finality. If we are at that point, it means we have a prospect. People have served God by the instruction of the Holy Ghost. For some, what the Holy Ghost told them 50 years ago is what they are still working with. Service is not made acceptable only by something that was told by the Holy Ghost, but by including us in a process that changes our entire being.
Great results were achieved in the book of Acts, but if the Church was left at the point of the Holy Ghost, the Church would not meet up with what is reasonable. Jesus appeared to Paul at Damascus with an unusual vision, a daylight encounter. Immediately afterwards, Paul began to preach Christ. When he started this, persecution came after him and he ran away. The Lord allowed this because Paul was not yet ready for service. Paul had to be whisked out of the city because a servant had not been raised in him. He did not yet have an understanding of the vision. Even though he had zeal and fire, he did not have the arrangements in him. There is an arrangement of spirit, soul and body that makes up a servant.
After the arrangement was done in him, Paul returned and he said “...when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother's womb, and called me by his grace, [16] To reveal his Son in me…” (Gal. 1:15-16). This vision of Paul is not the vision of Damascus but the vision of Jesus, the Son of God. It is the seeing of Jesus in the heart, with an agreement to go His way. We must see Him with His light and understanding, and with a readiness of heart to go His way. A servant who does not have His way does not have His life.
A time is coming when the fastest growing business will indeed be life. Men would be so alive, sensitive and discerning of life because we will have become part of the life — fully integrated with it. In life, we will live, move and have our being.
The Throne is called the throne of God and the Lamb. There is something the Lamb carries that we cannot see in the Father except when we look through the Lamb. If we look at the Father ourselves, we would not see it. There is something the Lamb carries in service. The Lamb is a service or sacrifice material; He is a sacrifice and offering. Service is sacrifice. The Old Testament order of natural offerings has given us a wrong concept of what service is. God instituted the Old Testament order but it was not the ultimate order of service God wants from creation.
“Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me…” (Heb. 10:5). Israel assumed God just desired and loved to have blood; but God told them that if He wanted blood, He would not come to them because He has enough within His reach to meet His need. It is not blood that God really seeks, it is the life that is in the blood. Life and blood are not the same. Blood is a place where life can stay. Life can stay independent of blood.
“For the life of the flesh is in the blood: and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls: for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul.” (Lev. 17:11). Life can exist without the blood, but God made the blood to carry life. Blood can trap life. The Old Testament took the blood for service, not knowing that it is life that God is looking for and not the blood. A blood that has no life does not meet the requirement. God gave the system of offering blood in the Old Testament as a temporary system till the real system can begin. God was waiting for the New Testament when man could come into the real service system, which is not blood but life. What Jesus Christ carried in His blood is life.
What God is doing is to raise servants of an order that is not easy to raise. Under the Holy Ghost, the early Church obeyed the Holy Ghost and had great results. Paul wanted to move to Asia but the Spirit forbade him and he remained under the Holy Ghost until he was given a vision to go (Acts 16:7-10). That resulted in a time of great breakthrough in Macedonia because they obeyed the Holy Ghost.
However, when we move to the next system, the instructions of the Holy Ghost wait for knowledge to build up first for the purpose of obedience. In the former administration of the Holy Ghost, He witnesses to us about everything. But in the next administration, the Holy Ghost reduces the former administration system and moves into knowledge because one who is obeying the Holy Ghost is still having a great measure of death.
“How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?” (Heb. 9:14). We cannot serve the living God without the purging of our consciences from dead works. Before a man gets to serving the living God, he has actually been serving with a dead conscience. We use God to do outstanding things, while still possessing a dead conscience. We became alive when we first heard the instruction of the Holy Ghost concerning what to do, but that service system is very low.
The reason for the holy Jerusalem, which is the Bride, is to show forth the Lamb. The City is the Lamb’s wife, which is the holy Jerusalem. It is from the holy Jerusalem, which already carries the glory of God, that the water of life flows out. The throne is eternal in the heavens. Creatures and nations that are saved do not have access to see the throne. God wants many servants but the City has to descend from heaven out of God for men to see the throne. The City is actually a man because it represents the Lamb.
“And the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and in them the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb. [15]And he that talked with me had a golden reed to measure the city, and the gates thereof, and the wall thereof. [16]And the city lieth foursquare, and the length is as large as the breadth: and he measured the city with the reed, twelve thousand furlongs. The length and the breadth and the height of it are equal. [17] And he measured the wall thereof, an hundred and forty and four cubits, according to the measure of a man, that is, of the angel.” (Rev. 21:14-17). All the tools of sacrifice in the tabernacle were foursquare measurements. The Bride is a servant; She is meant to do the bidding of the King. In the book of Esther, the queen was meant to show the glory of the kingdom because the kingdom is actually in her. But she did not serve the king’s purpose and made spite of the essence of the feast. She could not show the glory and make it manifest.
It is the City, through which the river flows, that actually grows back the tree of life (Rev. 22:2). The people are healed to be made accurate instruments of service and to render perfect sacrifice to God, or to get God involved in the highest administration of His life. The Bride carries the light of the Lamb. In that dispensation, men would see God through the City because His glory would be a crystal clear glass in the City.
The City is in a realm of God that is not stained; it is the highest and most pure realm of service. The reason for the City is to show the ultimate service and how ultimate servants are raised. It is clear that God will achieve this because if it has been shown, it is considered done to God. What is left is for people to look for Him until they see that ultimate service.
“The four and twenty elders fall down before him that sat on the throne, and worship him that liveth for ever and ever, and cast their crowns before the throne, saying, [11]Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.” (Rev. 4:10-11). When the 24 elders sighted the throne, they saw that the mandate that would fulfil that course was already set. This is the reason for the setting of the throne. The throne was not revealed but was only set for the purpose of the vision of the book of Revelation. John could not see that throne; it was only set for him. It was set for John to see what it looks like so that men can access what God is doing. Afterwards, men are meant to use the things he saw to navigate into the actual throne which is invisible, whose administration is spiritual and invisible.
God’s ultimate intention is eternal service: to make us servants eternally. Sonship is service. The parable of the prodigal son shows that the two sons were serving. One left with his inheritance but came back for service (Lk. 15:18-19). The inheritance is not meant for those outside; it is an instrument for in-house service. That is why those outside could not understand that legal tender but squandered it. The system outside cannot serve us because our service takes place inside. We do not move our things into the world for use, lest they abuse us. Our service is a house thing.
This world system does not know or care about our own service system. So, those who are in the house should serve the Father as sons should. The inheritance and everything the Father gives us is for service. Service to God does not have an end; this is because we will serve till eternity and in eternity, and we should be glad about that. Jesus is serving up till now and He is a Priest forever. A son is who Jesus has become, not what He does.
Knowledge and revelation would serve no purpose if we are not subject to training. One can have enlightenment without being trained. What the Father does to sons is to train them. He gives revelation to sons to scourge them (Heb. 12:6). Therefore, revelation is no longer a thing of enjoyment but a tool for training. Teaching is a professional thing, so just educating the mind is not enough. A child should be trained and teaching is only part of the training. Teaching should be done with a sense of training. It is possible to teach and not train. Training is the process for raising.
A child is raised by being trained up (Prov. 22:6). The essence of revelation is to put one in the way. What makes it scourging is that there is a way, not many ways. This is the narrow and straight way (Matt. 7:14). We need skill to take the narrow path because it is a path that cannot accommodate more than one person. That is the way that leads to life. Few find it because not many can be subject to, or endure its training, expectations, demands or insistence on the absence of other alternatives. Souls enjoy alternatives. This is why children usually enjoy objective questions. But theoretical questions require step-by-step instructions to arrive at the answer. Souls do not like step-by-step procedures.
It is not easy to combine the office of an apostle and a prophet. While a prophet sees the glory of a thing – which is usually the end-point, an apostle breaks it down into a process. It is not easy for an apostle to see things in glory and stay with it for years because it requires dedication and discipline.
Not many of the prophets can cross to the office of an apostle of the New Testament. One of such prophets was Agabus. Agabus became a fool with Paul. God had told Paul that he would go to Rome and be persecuted, and Paul had agreed with it. But Agabus came with his “mighty revelation” with demonstration, which God must have given him. Agabus was not mature enough to tell the word of the Lord directly to Paul, so he had to demonstrate what he saw to Paul (Acts 21:10-14). While he was speaking the truth, the manner of communication was not to strengthen Paul’s heart but to dissuade him. But Paul was a man with understanding who could not be wearied. After that incident, Agabus was not heard of again. Towards the end of the book of Acts, the Kingdom was being taught and the activities of prophetic manifestations waned.
What is kept in heaven are manuals of service – books. The gospel is the book. That book is not a physical book but a spiritual book, out of which some information are written in the Bible so that we can connect with it. There are books in the spirit. There is a need to generate more servants of the living God and there was a book tied to it with seven seals (Rev. 5:1). John knew that the Church needed that book to move into the next phase of service and that the destiny of the Church was dependent on it, but no one was qualified to open the book or to break the seals thereof. This is why he wept much (Rev. 5:4). A servant is concerned when the manual for service is not opening. A servant is not moved by preaching or the physical arrangements of ministry, but by ordinances to be obeyed. The things in the book are materials to be obeyed. Obedience is tied to service. We cannot serve until we obey.
There are books in the spirit we need to hack into, not by strength but by mercy. Some believers get weary by much speakings (teachings). But the Church is a school for raising services and servants. The essence of the five-fold ministry is to perfect the saints for the work of the ministry (Eph. 4:12), and to do the work of receiving materials for service to obey. When we obey, we are walking; we are also killing rams and offering blood. The essence of the five-fold is to build believers to learn obedience. The new way of service is obedience to the book. Ministers are raised to receive mercy to open the book for service and people can have access to things to serve.
The Scriptures are materials of guidance to make us ready for the book. Obedience is tied to service. All Jesus did all His life was to serve in obedience. It took years for Jesus to know the Father’s business (Luke 2:49). The Father’s business is to make servants. At age 12, Jesus was aware of the Father's business, He spoke affirmatively of it and was already aligning with that order. But it took 18 more years of learning obedience and righteousness for a Son, who is not after our order, to be raised. Christ is a work and the Father is a work. God is also a work. The Father is more than a Father in heaven. We are to ask Him for today’s bread, which is food for the work (Matt. 6:11). We cannot use other breads for His dominion.
“He openeth also their ear to discipline, and commandeth that they return from iniquity. [11] If they obey and serve him, they shall spend their days in prosperity, and their years in pleasures. [12] But if they obey not, they shall perish by the sword, and they shall die without knowledge.” (Job 36:10-12). The book of Job is a book to know the Almighty; so, the ear must be open to discipline. This is why believers are called disciples. When we are learning commandments, we are learning discipline alongside. Commandment helps us return from the way we have conducted life before.
“And Samuel said, Hath the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams.” (1 Sam. 15:22). Obedience is the school for service. We learn service from obedience. There is no way to teach us service outside it. If there is no training for obedience, there will be no life. We are called for a service of life.
There is a point we get to where grace is dependent on obedience. In such a time, we cannot access grace without obedience. Grace is given for grace. The grace referred to in Hebrews 12:28 is not obtained by prayer. The realm of the living God is a realm of obedience. That is where They start training us on how to perfect obedience. We will start seeing Jesus who came into grace by obedience.
Although Jesus is a Son, He attained grace by obedience (Heb. 2:9, 5:7). The more we move towards perfection, the more obedience becomes critical. That is why Saul lost the throne, he lost the throne because of disobedience. At the throne, what we are handling is too dangerous. To obey is better than sacrifice (1 Sam. 15:22). We are meant to be conscious of what to do. Obedience is what is expected of us at the level of kings, not sacrifice.
There is no Father without the Son. When talking about the fellowship of the Father and the Son, we cannot understand the Father directly but through the Son. The essence of the Son is to capture the Father and capture the work in Him. When we come to Their fellowship, the Son is the one administering the things of the Father. The Son learnt and acquired these things by obedience. The Father does not have to obey. The Son learnt by obedience and is administering to us the things that we need to obey. It is in the Son that the “how” to destroy the works of the devil was manifested (1 John 3:8). To manifest means to show Him and to make Him seen. The Son is the one who trains us on how to receive the things of the Father.
The Son carries the syllabus of how God can work in us. This is because He came to our realm and was tempted in every point as we are (Heb. 4:15). So He knows our nature when it comes to obedience. Sin will not be destroyed without the Son being made known. We are going to see the Son in all His manner and see Him to the end. For the approval of God to be given for us to be qualified to make the Son manifest, we are meant to get to a point where men will see us and see the Father in us also. His work would have been done to an extent in those who have gone through the learning of Christ. For Jesus, it took the people who were with Him to see the life. They have neither learnt such a life nor gotten the revelation of it, but they were to observe it.
“And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. [19] Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: [20] Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.” (Matt. 28:18-20). The commandment was “teaching them to observe”, not just teaching. All those with Jesus had not received the commandment of the Father nor the doctrine of the Son then, but they were walking with a man who carried everlasting life. The Father's life was already in Jesus when they were with Him. So they were seeing the life in demonstration, such that when the commandment was given, they could easily connect it. So when they saw Paul, it was not difficult for them to accept him. They had seen the life in the Son. They did not understand the message like Paul did, but they saw the life.
The message and the life must be together. To carry out service is to carry both the message and life. Those who carry such are called witnesses. Paul was made both a minister and a witness of what he had seen and those things that He will appear unto him for (Acts 26:16).
Rounding off: Reverend Kayode Oyegoke
It is heresy for someone to say that we do not need to worship God because we will be worshipped. There is nothing called eternal sons that will be worshipped; sons are meant to serve God. We will not be raised to that status of being worshipped.
What was missing in the Godhead is service to the Eternal God. That is the purpose of sonship: God wants sons who can understand the eternal manual and give Him service from a higher life. The four living creatures are the highest worshippers but God is looking for a worship that is higher than what they can give. They are higher cherubs; other cherubs can detach from the throne but these ones are tied to the throne; they are dead, they are beasts of the throne, and that in itself is service. They do not rest night or day, they serve the throne solely. Yet, God wants to raise people who are higher in response to serving Him than those creatures. The activities we see on the throne are a shadow of what is to come. The throne is more than a physical thing.
We can see that the purpose of man from the beginning is to sit on the throne. Some might suppose that one is taking the subject too far and that we do not need to kill ourselves over something we are not seeing. This shows that the adversary has done a work so that men and the Church would not be interested in things of God like this.
There is a life that Satan has sold and a work he has done that will make men uninterested in the Throne. It is clear that when the world to come arrives, we would still need the tree of life for healing (Rev. 22:2). This is necessary because of the work that Satan has done. Everyone in that world will have resurrected bodies. Despite the changed bodies, the souls would still need healing. A soul can dwell in a glorified body and still need healing. We are enjoying the rare privilege of hearing and engaging in the things to come.
There are a lot of physical evidences that constitute Satanic hindrances. Satan is the hinderer; he has hindered men by engaging them with a life that is not real. So, men are busy with the wrong things. However, God has reserved the things of the world to come for all men, not only the Church. The Church is the tool by which people should come into it. God loves all men; He does not only want to get them saved but also wants them to sit on His Throne. He knows it will take ages to achieve this, and He is not backing out.
The reason for the appearance of Jesus is to fulfil the ambition of the Father. We must not be ignorant of this as we leave this Anamnesis.
Blessings!