Programme: Anamnesis 2024 - Day 2 (Morning Session)
Theme: The Son; The Way
Date: Thursday, 12th December 2024
Minister: Pastor Emeka Egwuchukwu
Topic: The Discipline of the Way of the Son to the Father
Transcript Summary
- “God be merciful unto us, and bless us; and cause his face to shine upon us; Selah. [2]That thy way may be known upon earth, thy saving health among all nations.” (Ps. 67:1-2). When we study the book of Psalm, we will observe/notice a major feature called ways. David happens to be a man with ways. The book of Genesis is a book of ways; this means God began with ways. When anything is a way, such a thing stays on earth. Ways are important. The ‘face shining’ in the verse above is for God to make His ways known.
- One of the things Satan did was to make sure the ways of God were corrupted (Gen. 6:12). To corrupt a way means to mix it up little by little until we lose the essence of the way. While Satan does this, he is also paving his own way; we see this in the rise of men like Cain (Jude 1:11).
- At the east of the garden of Eden, God placed a Cherub with a flaming sword to direct ways (Gen. 3:24). This means the Lord does not lack ways. But in possessing ways, there is “The Way”. There is a hidden way by God. It is a way that was not discovered, but the Son of God came to show it.
- Men had walked with God in the Old Testament with measures of ways. The patriarchs walked with God. Noah walked with God. Enoch walked with God and before he was taken up, it was recorded that he had the testimony that he pleased God (Heb. 11:5). This means that he walked to the point of the testimony of that way.
- There are testimonies and there are ways, otherwise, Hebrews 11 would not record that “…by this, the elders obtained a good report” (Heb. 11:2). To obtain a good report is to get to the end of that way. For someone like Enoch, he had the testimony that he pleased God before he was taken away. He received the testimony that made him please God. If those men walked with God, then there must have been a way because they were not walking aimlessly. God made ways known to them. We see how God made known His acts to the children of Israel, but He made known His ways to Moses (Psa. 103:7). God showed Moses a way. God has been a God of ways, but there is a hidden way.
- The desire of every son should be to go back to God. Jesus would say, “I go to My Father” (John 11:38). Over time, we have come to see that what we are here to do is to go back to the Father. That is the journey of every son. You are not complete as a son if you do not go back to the Father. The doctrine of the Son is the way that God had made Him. Everything our Lord Jesus said when He started out ministry were from what He was embodying and the things He was taking from the Father. He was not confessing when He said “I am the resurrection and the life” (John 11:25); it is the reality of a work that was worked out in Him.
- The Son is the Way; the way is not outside Him. The way is not only what the Son is walking in, it is what the Son has become. He has become the way, the truth, and the life (John 14:6). Now these three are the ingredients you need to return to the Father. That is why He said no one cometh to the Father but by Him. We will need Him as the way, the truth, and the life to get to the Father. Every man is supposed to be going to the Father. It is a wasted life not to get to the Father, and Satan would do everything to make us not get to the Father. Satan uses many things to make us not to get to the Father. There are a whole lot of distractions he uses. Anything man has can be used to make him live a wasted life.
- “For the Father loveth the Son, and sheweth him all things that himself doeth: and he will shew him greater works than these, that ye may marvel.” (John 5:20). The things that the Father is showing the Son are “all things” of the Father. Those things that He gave to the Son made the Son become the Way. The Father showeth the Son whatever He doeth. The Father has a work inside Himself that He showed to the Son; those are the things the Son received, acquired and became. The Lord knoweth those who are His. When God said “I know my servant, Abraham”, God was bearing witness to what He wrought in him (Gen. 18:19).
- “For I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the LORD, to do justice and judgment; that the LORD may bring upon Abraham that which he hath spoken of him.” (Gen. 18:19). God taught Abraham the way because you cannot teach your children what you do not do/practice. God wants His way to be kept in families—between husband and wife, and between father (parents) and the children. What ties God to the earth are His ways. When His ways are eroded, God is gone. God wants to come into families and relationships. Love and meekness are His ways. There must be such ways in families and relationships. You cannot issue a command when you do not have authority. Abraham had authority of that life; that was why he could command (Gen. 18:19). You will have authority to give a way when you have it (live it out).
- The Father loveth the Son, and in loving the Son, He invested in working on the Son to give Him judgement. When God loves you, He gives you ways. It is not easy to give ways because it might be misunderstood when being administered. “And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chatstening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him…” (Hebrews 12:5). Not every man can endure the process to take the way; this is why it is difficult to teach ‘way’. The men of Genesis were able to take ‘way’ because they were not children.
- In configuring ways, the first thing God would do is chasten you to discipline you. If we do not have ways in churches, we would remain children. It is difficult for children to receive chastening because it requires training. We yielded to the fathers of our flesh who chastened us for a moment, how much more should we be subject to the Father of spirits (Heb. 12:9). God wants to father spirits.
- (Heb. 12:6; Heb. 12:11). One is not a son if one does not have the ways of the Father. One must be disciplined to inherit that way, or else one is an illegitimate son. They have to take us through the oath of chastening. Jesus also endured the cross; the life He lived here on earth was a strict life—a cross-life, which is the life of the way of the cross. Jesus lived out the crucified life. At each point, He was able to deal with Satan. Anytime you live for yourself, you are in Satan's fine palm. One way to deal with Satan is to live a crucified life. However, we cannot crucify ourselves. Commandments have to be given for us to obey, just like the Father commanded the Son.
- “Before I was afflicted I went astray: but now have I kept thy word.” (Psa. 119:67). When you are being disciplined, your soul is being afflicted. To go astray is to go one’s own way. Every man’s way that is not the way the Father prescribed is astray. No matter how noble your intentions are, as long as that way would not end up in the Father, it is astray. David had that understanding that “…I have been afflicted that I might learn thy statutes” (Psa. 119:71). In learning His statutes, we need to be disciplined.
- The first thing is the chastening of the Father. God has to ‘chasten’ you if He loves you. The next thing He would do is to ‘scourge’ you. They are not the same thing. For Him to receive you, He has to scourge you (Heb. 12:6). If we are not scourged, we will live our lives after the lust of men (1 Pet. 4:1).
- “The LORD is my portion, saith my soul; therefore will I hope in him. [25] The LORD is good unto them that wait for him, to the soul that seeketh him.” (Lam. 3:24-25). When God is chastening us, He is being good to us. His word says that He chastises us so that we might be partakers of His holiness (Heb. 12:10), and this is our hope. Holiness is a way. Without chastening, we would not be partakers of His way. It might seem sometimes that God hates those who actually serve Him, but He does not hate us. If God leaves us as we are, we would walk as other Gentiles walk in the vanity of our minds, doing everything the Gentiles do even as believers or ministers (Eph. 4:17). Our anointing does not intimidate the devil because he was also an anointed cherub (Eze. 28:14). If he could tempt Jesus, how much more us!
- (Lam. 3:25-27, 33-34). God does not chastise us willingly; it is not something He delights in. Do not be afraid when you hear chastening, it is just the discipline and scourging that the Father has to supervise. The Father does it to those He loves. “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.” (Rom. 8:28). The ‘good’ here is talking about God because it is only God that is good. When everything is “working together for good”, it means that it is taking you to God.
- “And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father.” (Gal. 4:6). When we see spirit in the scripture, what we tend to see is the Holy Ghost. The Holy Ghost is the spirit of the Son that rests upon the Son but there is a spirit of the Son that is within the heart and that is the one being referenced here. The spirit of the Son is in the heart and God sends the spirit of His Son into their heart. Therefore the spirit of the Son is actually the laws of the Son — the ways. You have to be raised to a stature before the spirit of the Son can be sent into your heart.
- The spirit of the Son cries ‘Abba Father’, it is a response. Once it has come into your heart, you will keep crying ‘Abba Father’; you will be discontented with everything here. The cry ‘Abba Father’ is hunger at a level, that is, this type of sons are not looking for anything other than the program of the Father to be finished; and the program of the Father is that we should arrive at the Father. Spirits are things they have to give to your heart.
- “If a son shall ask bread of any of you that is a father, will he give him a stone? or if he ask a fish, will he for a fish give him a serpent?” (Luke 11:11). These are the spirits; bread and fish. There is a spirit called bread in the Son and there is also a spirit called fish in the Son. The heavenly Father will give us His holy spirit. That spirit is the spirit the Father gave to the Son. It is the spirit of the way. In Luke 11:10-12, we see bread, fish, and egg; these are powerful, they are spirits. Those are the things that will be used to give birth to us.
- “But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name…” (John 1:12). We have to receive Him, meaning we have to receive that spirit. We have to receive His things. If we do not receive His things, we have not received Him. It is His things that we receive that means we have received Him. You cannot reject His things and say you love God. We like what God provides but we do not like what He is in Him. It is the receiving of that thing that is in Him that translates to us receiving Him.
- ‘On his name’ refers to things that are inside of Him. The list started from blood, which is the egg (John 1:13). The will of the flesh is fish, while the will of man is bread (both on the flip side). Man labours for bread which perishes. All the labour of man is for bread. The will of man is that which man is labouring for and it will perish, but God wants to give us that which does not perish which is the Bread of God. The Bread of God is He that comes from heaven and gives life unto men.
- John 1:13 also explains how the birthing process is; bread, fish and egg. Egg represents blood, fish represents (in contrast) the will of the flesh. Then bread represents (in contrast) the will of man. When these three things have been given to a man, that man is fully born of God. Bread is a spirit, fish is a spirit, egg is also a spirit. What heaven wants to do is to mix bread, fish, and egg – that is way. So, when we eat it, we are eating way or spirit. When a man has finished eating, he will be called a son of God. That is what we are eating at Anamnesis. They are making us eat things. We will not leave this Anamnesis being the same. The fact that we are hearing these things means that it will follow us.
- We are eating something. We eat by hearing, and as a result, spirits will follow us. We will not depart from the way. We will know the way and be led in the way. We will be disciplined in the way and be chastised in the way. We will inherit God. God made known His ways to Moses and showed the children His acts (Psa. 103:7). We will learn ways. This is a company – the church of the Way.
- The Church is supposed to be a church on the way, meaning that we are going somewhere. We are returning to the Father. Anyone who comes to church must learn how to go back. Such a person should not remain a baby, nor remain dormant or be like a settler. There is nothing to settle for here. The reason the Lord will chasten, correct, and scold us is for our benefit. The Lord wants us to partake of His rest. His holiness is His rest.
Blessings!
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