Eternal Glorious Fountain Ministry (EGFM)
Programme: Revelation Hour (RH)
Date: Saturday, 8th October, 2022
Just like in the parables of the lost sheep, the lost piece of silver and the prodigal son (Luke 15:3-32), Jesus came to seek and find that which is lost. But more importantly, He came to raise a people who will place value on everlasting life and deploy themselves to get everything God has for them. There is something in man that can make him lose the reality of God’s strength and go off-course. On earth today, people are being pressed to just focus on their strengths, so that they can stand out and be successful. But the way the Chief Shepherd designed our growth process is that every bit counts because they all contribute a wholeness to our being and our ability to fully represent God.
The story of the prodigal son (Luke 15:11-32) is very akin to our everyday lives. The system that man created, which is independent of God, is a system that raises prodigal nations. People are not truly aware of who they are because of these systems. The prodigal son lived riotously, wasted all his inheritances and began to be in want; this is similar to the story of man. Just like it was told to Rebekah that two nations were in her womb (Gen. 25:23), we also have two nations in us. A part of us wishes to respond to God — this part truly remembers the dealings of God and wants to connect with it. But there is also a part of us that makes us want to find relevance in this world because we feel lost. There is a way God has designed for us to handle and process life. Therefore, we need to know what life is and how to sustain it.
As we begin to come to very important junctions where there is a demand from God to move us into His lot, we also need to be able to realize what is at stake. The world’s system is designed in such a way that we do not truly know that we are losing something because it is a system that is set against God. Philosophies are fast-changing and are taking on the whole psyche of man. There are forces of life that are against our devotion and commitment to God. Therefore, we have to do a lot more to salvage our souls.
“For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh…” (Rom. 8:3). The law could not perform its righteous intent because it was weak through the flesh. Flesh is not just susceptibility to sin; it is also an intelligence that makes our minds join with Satan and move against God. As such, it hinders the very best intentions of God for us. The law was supposed to be a schoolmaster, but it became weakened. This therefore sets a demand that no matter the victories or progresses we make in our journey towards God, we should keep pressing towards the prize (Phil. 3:14). We have to keep moving because there is no safe ground.
The system of this world comes in different shades and we must all be aware of them because they were all designed to take away God’s life in us. Believers require a lot more than dos and don'ts to go against the system of the world. In the midst of our busy daily activities and tiredness, we must take some steps that will help us move against that which wants to go against God’s formation in us. If we do not do this, we will achieve all we want but lose life. The systems of the world are designed to hinder us from moving into all that God is. Therefore, we have to move against the deception of Satan that wants to rob us of pressing into completeness in God. God wants us to thrive in Him. The essence of seeking that one sheep is a call to thrive (Luke 15:3-7) and thriving means coming into completeness and joy.
In the midst of our unique experiences, God will bring us from periods of strength to seasons where it seems like we are not able to respond. But we must still have a sense to fight at such times. When we have moments that put a lot of burden and weight on us, we must understand how to maintain equilibrium such that we will be able to sustain our strengths and movement in the spirit. We must move against the system that makes us feel that we are okay, whereas by our interactions with the system, we are depreciating.
The principle in those parables of going to search for the sheep, getting light to brighten the room and getting the broom to sweep is rigor, and the Lord wants us to attain this posture. There are times in our lives when we do not really struggle to access the things of the spirit, just as there are some other times where we struggle and we have to study and wait on God’s word until such a season wanes. We need to take the broom and sweep; we need to light up our human spirit so that we can be more attuned, otherwise we will feel overwhelmed – having so much around but being unable to receive i
In the process of trying to engage the things of the Spirit, we develop the true capacity that can take more from God. There is so much that life throws at us but we need to be deliberate in moving against them. There is a system that is subtly against God; it is an intelligence that we agree with and defer to. This system is against us apprehending that for which we were apprehended (Phil. 3:12). Seasons come and go, but we need to be saved in the season of harvest (Jer. 8:20). We should begin to move against the system that makes us comfortable in depreciation and do more by going deeper into God, so that strength will begin to arise in us. We need to take our personal walk with God more seriously and take advantage of it.
In the parable of the prodigal son (Luke 15:11-32), both sons represent two dimensions – the covenant of life and peace. Life can mean knowledge. However, when a person has life, it does not mean he has fully come into peace. Peace means that the fear of the Lord has been cultured within a person and such a person can keep God’s ways. It is one thing to have knowledge but it is another to have an outworking of the fear of God in you. We can say that the son at home had the element of peace while the prodigal son had some level of knowledge. But the father knew that he needed the two of them, for neither of them was complete in themselves. Our knowledge of God and our pious experiences are good, but these things can hinder us from going deeper with God. We therefore need the culturing of being able to open up to knowledge and that of being guarded with peace.
We need to open ourselves to growth and the dealings of God that allow His fear to be worked out in us. The working of God comes with God’s process. We may hear a lot of revelation but many times, it does not stick. However, if we go through them experientially, they will stick in our souls. The prodigal son learnt by that experience he had. We have in us substances of both the prodigal son and the son that stayed back. There is a part of us that wants to explore and another part that wants to be satisfied with the current level. But if we allow the breath of the Spirit of the Lord to fall on us, we will come out of the hold that does not want us to take more of God.
The lesson of these three parables is that we need to seek, search and knock (Matt. 7:7). We can equate that change of heart of the prodigal son to knocking because it is more intense. The esteem of the prodigal son was cracked for him to come back. Sometimes, people cannot come to that point until they meet a certain expression of God. Many times, our experiences are the dealings of God. David said, “It is better I fall into the hands of God '' (2 Sam. 24:14). As we go through seasons, we need to have a mindset where we are kept within the boundaries and dealings of God in our hearts, so that we do not seek to destroy God’s work. It is better that we are broken in the hands of the potter, so that we can be fixed.
When we want to do the will of God and things begin to look unpleasant, we should let that situation be the place where we can access strength to be all that God has called us to be. Sometimes we also do not have the mental picture of what God has called us to be, but it is good to remain a vessel in His hands. This vessel may not be as we may think because it is possible that a vessel may be so broken that it cannot be put together, but God needs to raise us and work out hope in us. Sometimes, we may be so overwhelmed that we are not able to draw strength and power, but we should let strength arise within us.
There is a sense where we understand the joy of the Lord to mean some form of reward. On the flip side, there are some points where we would not be at the reward point. We would then need to pull ourselves together before we get to the point where we are told to come into the joy of the Lord. That joy means that we have to mount up a certain level of strength because joy is at stake. It is at this point that we need to be raised into men of strength. There is a joy that is a reward that God will do, but there is also a joy that comes when we win our wars. It is not just the victories, but also what we become in the process.
As we get stronger against all that is raised against us, God is calling for us to be stronger than the system of the world. We will be instrumental to raising a generation of righteous men who have the strength to stand against the world; men whom God has decked with strength to say no to all assaults of Satan and see to it that the ways of God are not eroded in themselves. By that same comfort, we will comfort others. The comfort is that we will not be swallowed by the system and its challenges. This comfort will also bring us into more strengths.
David was a man who, in the midst of great contradictions, knew how to switch to access strength. We can access strength by knowing how to take advantage of God’s realm that is within reach of us. God is calling us all as a people to a place of great strength. This strength will come when we win our wars. If we do not understand that there is a challenge and an onslaught against our completeness, we will not know what is at stake.
One of the things that revelation knowledge does is that through it, God gives us a picture of the fullness that we can attain. But Satan always tells us that it is impossible. To apprehend is to have a grasp of the purpose for which we were created. This does not just mean making up one’s mind. Rather, it is an inner working that we will respond to by engaging God. Then, we will have the capacity to lay our hands on that which was difficult to have a grip on. At this point, we can have that level of apprehension of the depth of the reality of God in our hearts. This reality will shape our thoughts and conversations. This should be our cry and what we look for.
We need to identify that which holds back the full experience of our apprehension and move against it so that it can then become our joy. Then, it will also become a strength to us. If we are not forceful to look for what is at stake, a time will come that Satan will begin to play with our minds to the extent that we would begin to doubt the things that we thought we knew. Whatever scenario we find ourselves in, we have to keep pressing on. If it makes us cry, we should let the cry drive us to God. After crying, we should wipe our eyes, and stir up ourselves. Thereby, seasons will not be wasted and when God changes seasons, we will be able to move with Him.
“For our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ: [21] Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself.” (Philipp. 3:20-21). We are supposed to come into a civilization that is heavenly; not heaven as a place, but a mindset that wants to keep God’s things. The vile body is not the physical body; it is the intelligence of flesh that always finds a way to work against God. However, we will come to a place where we would get a hold of the heavenly conversation because we would have received strength and victory in Jesus, and we would have been fashioned like He is. His glorious body does not refer to His physical body; it is being able to have a grip on God’s reality in our minds and perceptions. That grip will make us subdue all things in the way that He subdued all things. All things speak of completeness. The dealings of God are so that we can come into wholeness.
There is a wisdom and intelligence called flesh, and we all have a bit of it. If we do not move forward in the spirit, it will take a part of us, we will agree with it and use it to further our journey. We will be comfortable, even when we have not yet arrived at our destination. But we can trust that God is moving to change our vile bodies into His glorious body (Phil. 3:21). Then, we will gain dominance over everything. We are going to be a generation of people who will rise and be a people of strength. This is not just strength for a season, but for all times. We will have the strength that will also help other people give expression to their strengths.
As we respond to God and deploy ourselves, we would come into great fellowship. And by this, we would access a world of joy that would be our hallmark. We will be a people of strength that do not waste the seasons of God. Sometimes, it may appear to be draining when we seem like we are unable to measure up with where we know the Lord desires for us to be, but we need to make sure there is a cry in our hearts that God can use to turn things around. We may go through the most difficult situations, but out of it would come the strength to respond to God.
Blessings!
Summary
1. The story of the prodigal son (Luke 15:11-32) is very akin to our everyday lives. The system that man created, which is independent of God, is a system that raises prodigal nations. People are not truly aware of who they are because of these systems.
2. Flesh is not just susceptibility to sin; it is also an intelligence that makes our minds join with Satan and move against God. As such, it hinders the very best intentions of God for us.
3. Believers require a lot more than dos and don'ts to go against the system of the world. In the midst of our busy daily activities and tiredness, we must take some steps that will help us move against that which wants to go against God’s formation in us. If we do not do this, we will achieve all we want but lose life.
4. There is a system that is subtly against God; it is an intelligence that we agree with and defer to. This system is against us apprehending that for which we were apprehended (Phil. 3:12). We should begin to move against the system that makes us comfortable in depreciation and do more by going deeper into God, so that strength will begin to arise in us
5. Our knowledge of God and our pious experiences are good, but these things can hinder us from going deeper with God. We therefore need the culturing of being able to open up to knowledge and that of being guarded with peace.
6. We may hear a lot of revelation but many times, it does not stick. However, if we go through them experientially, they will stick in our souls.
7. There is a wisdom and intelligence called flesh, and we all have a bit of it. If we do not move forward in the spirit, it will take a part of us, we will agree with it and use it to further our journey. We will be comfortable, even when we have not yet arrived at our destination.
8. God is calling for us to be stronger than the system of the world. We will be instrumental in raising a generation of righteous men who have the strength to stand against the world, who are decked with strength to say no to all assaults of Satan and see to it that the ways of God are not eroded in themselves.