Eternal Glorious Fountain Ministry (EGFM)
Programme: Writing The Vision (March Edition)
Date: Saturday, 19th March 2022
Speaker 4: Pastor Emeka Egwuchukwu
“And these things write we unto you, that your joy may be full.” (1 John 1:4). For you to become joyful, there are things that need to be written to you or things which you need to receive. There is a joy of the Lord which a man cannot fully come into without certain things being written to him. The things we are hearing are things that make for joy; they are glad tidings, which are tidings of good things.
We are meant to enter into joy in this season, not because of the situations around us but because of the things that we are hearing. Our souls will come into joy and the joy will be full when these things become clear to us and we begin to inherit them.
David said, ‘I will be satisfied when I awake with Thy likeness’ (Psa. 17:15). David understood that true joy is for a soul to awake into His likeness; nothing else will give him joy and satisfaction. The day we awake into His image and likeness, we come into a certain joy and strength because we are completely made free.
There is a hindrance that seems to often block us from connecting to God, even when we pray or fast. That hindrance is the hindrance of flesh and blood. We sometimes have a break through into that refreshing fellowship, but we cannot maintain it. Flesh and blood is the battle of every person. The reason spirits can hinder us is because we are still flesh and blood.
Our Lord Jesus was a Man in the bosom of the Father (John 1:18), even though He was on the earth. This means that He had come out of flesh and blood; no spirit can hinder the kind of fellowship which is between Him and the Father. You become a man of heaven when you have this kind of fellowship.
Paul said that just as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall bear the image of the heavenly (1 Cor. 15:49). This is not referring to just the heaven of angels. The image of the earthy is the image of the first Adam (1 Cor. 15:47). This is the image that was corrupted because it was not the exact image and likeness of God. There is also an image and likeness in the heavens. Cherubims have an image and likeness that is higher than Adam because Adam was made a little lower than the angels.
The battle of the end time is a warfare of images. That was why God gave a commandment not to make any other image (Exo. 20:4). Image making is an exclusive right of God. The image that the fallen cherub (Satan) raised on earth is still battling man till date. That is why we are to keep ourselves from idols (1 John 5:21).
There is an image in this world and that image is the image of the fallen cherub. The antichrist is an image and likeness of the fallen cherub, and having that image is total destruction. Any image and likeness that a man makes will still fall short of what real image is. King Nebuchadnezzar made an image of himself and asked everyone to bow to it. Ceaser had his image engraved on a coin. Kings like images: they think that by making images they will immortalize themselves. It was Satan that taught them this wisdom of how to make images.
In the realm of the spirit, where real images are made is in the soul. Jesus asked to give what belongs to Ceaser to Ceaser and that we should give God our souls (Matt. 22:20-22). Just as we have borne the image of the earthy, we must bear the image of the heavenly. The reason for the soul is to bear that image.
The essence of the incorruptible seed is for image making. Rejecting that seed is rejecting the formation of image. God desires that image will be raised in our soul, not in our spirits or physical bodies. If we reject the things that are being spoken now, we are rejecting substances for the making of God’s image and are declaring that we do not like God. We are meant to love His appearance, which is His appearance in our soul. His appearance in our soul is our salvation (1 Pet. 1:7-9).
What we are currently faced with is a perverted image and what can make us free is the image of the heavenly. What will make the heavenly image is the incorruptible seed. God is presently destroying images and raising up another image in our soul. This image is not the image of the present heavens but of the world to come. Receiving or inheriting this image is a result of inheriting the incorruptible seed.
The image of God can be inherited. Jesus was made the brightness of God’s glory and the exact image of His Person (Heb. 1:3). God wants to give us that same image which He gave to Jesus. Jesus became the image and brightness of God to show us that it can be given to man. Thus, He became man so that we can see how it is being given, and so that we can also believe. Any spirit that does not believe that Christ is come in the flesh is denying the image of God (1 John 4:3). It is possible for man to receive the image of God!
“Jesus answered them, Is it not written in your law, I said, Ye are gods…” (John 10:34). God knows how to turn a man inside till he becomes god. Similarly, Satan knows how to turn a man; he has turned the hearts of some men to make them think that they are gods, such as Nebuchadnezzar.
The essence of the New Testament economy is to unveil the exact image of God. What He foreshadowed in the Old Testament and prophets is that image and likeness. He could not properly communicate that image until the New Testament. Therefore, the essence of the New Testament is that we bear the image of the heavenly.
The new covenant actually begins with the giving of incorruptible things. Christ is to prepare the heart for the covenant. God only made covenant with Abraham after he had journeyed to the point where he became a father; it was at that point that God gave him a seed. Isaac was not the seed, but was only a container of that seed. Similarly, in the New Testament, it is Christ that bears the seed.
Just as man is a spirit, has a soul and lives in a body; God is Eternal, He has everlasting and lives in Christ. God is eternal in His true essence, everlasting is the soul of God while Christ is His flesh. God made everything according to that pattern.
There is no image making, without a work being done. This work that must be done is not a work that can be done by someone who is not yet Christ. There are good works to be done. Where God ordained works to be done is in the season of everlasting; that is where the works of God are actually revealed.
There are two aspects of work. The first aspect is our obedience to the incorruptible seed. As we hear and pattern our life to the incorruptible seed, we are doing a work. This will bring about a fashioning, which is the second aspect of work. If we do not work, it will not be worked in us. We will not become what we have not worked. This is not trying to work it out ourselves, but our submission to the Spirit of everlasting life.
As we obey, the work will be done inside of us until we inherit that work. This inheritance is what is called image. There is no image making without obedience. Jesus also had to do obedience (Heb. 5:8). A work is being revealed for a work to be done in us, which is the image. That image is the inheritance that is incorruptible, undefiled and does not fade away (1 Pet. 1:4).
The image is salvation! A man who has inherited image has inherited salvation. Salvation will not only be something that is spoken of, we will also see men who will walk in these things. We will see men carry and inherit the image of God. It is the making of image that will cause spirits to fall. Image will fall spirits in Nigeria, Africa and the whole world.
A man with image has inherited it and it cannot be taken from him. It is God’s program of salvation for us that just as we have borne the image of the earthy, we will also bear the image of the heavenly.
Summary
1. (Psa. 17:15) The day we awake into His image and likeness, we come into a certain joy and strength because we are completely made free.
2. The battle of the end time is a warfare of images. That was why God gave a commandment not to make any other image (Exo. 20:4). Image making is an exclusive right of God. The image that the fallen cherub (Satan) raised on earth is still battling man till date. That is why we are to keep ourselves from idols (1 John 5:21).
3. In the realm of the spirit, where real images are made is in the soul. Jesus asked to give what belongs to Ceaser to Ceaser and that we should give God our souls (Matt. 22:20-22). Just as we have borne the image of the earthy, we must bear the image of the heavenly (in our souls).
4. The essence of the incorruptible seed is for image making. Rejecting that seed (in His speakings to us) is rejecting the formation of image. We are meant to love His appearance, which is His appearance in our soul. His appearance in our soul is our salvation (1 Pet. 1:7-9).
5. God is presently destroying images and raising up another image in our soul. This image is not the image of the present heavens but of the world to come. Receiving or inheriting this image is a result of inheriting the incorruptible seed.
6. The image of God can be inherited (Heb. 1:3). Any spirit that does not believe that Christ is come in the flesh is denying the image of God (1 John 4:3). God wants to give us that same image which He gave to Jesus. It is possible for man to receive the image of God.
7. The essence of the New Testament economy is to unveil the exact image of God. What He foreshadowed in the Old Testament and prophets is that image and likeness. He could not properly communicate that image until the New Testament. Therefore, the essence of the New Testament is that we bear the image of the heavenly.
8. The new covenant actually begins with the giving of incorruptible things. Christ is to prepare the heart for the covenant.
9. There is no image making without a work being done. Where God ordained works to be done is in the season of everlasting; that is where the works of God are actually revealed.
10. As we hear and pattern our life to the incorruptible seed, we are doing a work. As we obey, the work will be done inside of us until we inherit that work. This inheritance is what is called image. There is no image making without obedience.