Eternal Glorious Fountain Ministry (EGFM)
Programme: Believers' Convention 2022 (Day 5 Evening Session)
Date: Thursday, 11th August 2022
“Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed.” (Isa. 53:1). The report to be believed is the twin gospel that is being amplified in our midst. The Lord backed up everyone that responded to these reports with His arm. This arm of the Lord is the arm of salvation; it is the arm by which the Lord will reveal salvation in our midst. One thing that is happening on the earth today is that salvation is now in the air, just like the healing move was in the air years ago because some people paid the price in the place of waiting and praying. In the same way, we have been waiting but something different is happening this time around. Salvation is becoming tangible; it is becoming a common denominator in our midst.
“Those things, which ye have both learned, and received, and heard, and seen in me, do: and the God of peace shall be with you.” (Philipp. 4:9). ‘Things’ here are conversations. Paul was telling the Church that the secrets that made him an elder in everlasting life can also be their secrets. If we have been blessed by the ministrations of our spiritual parents, it is because they have secrets and they can become our secrets as well, if only we can learn, receive, hear and see them.
“And this is the will of him that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the last day.” (John 6:40). It is possible to see the Son and not really see Him. In the same manner, it is one thing to see the manner of life of our parents and it is another thing to commit to it. The provision of salvation is a provision of longsuffering. One reason this emphasis is coming our way is that many have been able to keep the commandment of faith that is in Christ. The essence of this teaching is to bring a company to the point of charity which endures (1 Cor. 13:7). However, charity cannot endure forever.
As beautiful as the conversation of 1 Corinthians 13 is, it is just a foundation that God wants to build upon before He can inhabit it. This conversation has the beauty of a soul that has come to peace, which is a place where the soul can relate with a season of perfection, for it to suffer long and be beautified with salvation. God wants to build on this foundation so that He can have a temple to build Himself.
One thing happening in this generation is that a house is being built for God. These houses are men whose souls will have two categories of work. A great responsibility is coming our way in this generation. Our parents have endured a lot of contradictions and discouragements in order to receive this level of word. Jesus could have been discouraged if He was not looking up to the Father.
“Because all those men which have seen my glory, and my miracles, which I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and have tempted me now these ten times, and have not hearkened to my voice…” (Num. 14:22). When the devil came against the children of Israel, they were given an opportunity to respond like Caleb did. Caleb responded in faith; he had another spirit (Num. 14:24) that granted him entrance into the promised land. After the Israelites experienced the signs in the wilderness and sang songs unto the Lord, Satan showed up. As such, Satan will also show up like never before because of the things we have heard. Our response to this temptation will determine if the Lord will be able to construct a way in our souls, or if we are going to sin against the way by disregarding what we have heard.
“Which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water.” (1 Pet. 3:20). What the Lord wants to offer men is salvation. Another word for salvation is longsuffering. Noah was just and perfect and He feared the Lord, like Job did. For 120 years, God suffered long with men and He found a man who could suffer long with Him. Noah suffered long because he found grace to tap into a nature in God that does not want anyone to perish (2 Pet. 3:9).
The Lord will prepare our hearts ahead of time and have us make commitments to bear the burdens of this work. This work will prosper if we are willing to suffer like our spiritual parents have suffered. That is how this work will move from minority to majority. The Lord wants to give us the nature of salvation that does not want anyone to perish. Our elders that hold meetings all day know that a generation is tied to this labour.
“Therefore I endure all things for the elect's sakes, that they may also obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.” (2 Tim. 2:10). The ability to endure all things is a sense that heaven wants to birth in us. God brought the seven churches to this corridor.
“I know thy works, and where thou dwellest, even where Satan's seat is: and thou holdest fast my name, and hast not denied my faith, even in those days wherein Antipas was my faithful martyr, who was slain among you, where Satan dwelleth.” (Rev. 2:13). The name of the Lord has a conversation, which attracts affliction but this is where our perfection is. At the end of holding fast His name, this Church will get to a place where they will not deny His name like they have not denied His faith.
The church in Philadelphia had held the mystery of faith with a good conscience. They were now holding something higher, just like God is calling us to hold. This church had been kept by the faith, but are now being kept by a higher power – salvation. If faith keeps, salvation will also keep them from higher powers that come against them as they ascend to the throne.
“And every one that hath forsaken houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my name's sake, shall receive an hundredfold, and shall inherit everlasting life.” (Matt. 19:29). “For My name’s sake” is for salvation sake or for the sake of suffering long. The world is arranged in the persons (or seasons) of life which Jesus listed above. Hell, death and iniquity also have an arrangement here. It will take holding what we have seen in the manner of life of those who have gone ahead of us to escape the temptation to come shortly. By virtue of what we are hearing, we are receiving everlasting life like we once received the knowledge of Christ. We have the knowledge of everlasting life but this knowledge has to be processed in our souls for us to own it. This would call for seasons of trials where we will face delay or unanswered prayers.
The end of this course is salvation and this is where the Philadelphia church arrived at (Rev. 2:13). Some of us will have the privilege of passing through seasons of trials, where heaven may not be quick to answer some prayers. These seasons will be used to measure out patience and long-suffering to our souls so that we can end in joy. The main goal is not the trial itself, but the higher life which the Lord seeks to give one who has held fast to His name. This will bring us to the point where it can be said of us that we have the Father’s name on our foreheads (Rev. 14:1).
“I know thy works: behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it: for thou hast a little strength, and hast kept my word, and hast not denied my name.” (Rev. 3:8).This church had moved from the point of keeping His faith to the point of making denials. We are being fed to be able to deny a life or some unknown idols. God instructed that we should have no other God but Him (Exo. 20:3). When we have overcome all idols, we become a temple. The presence of fear is the presence of a love that has not been surrendered; it indicates a life that we are yet to hate.
“I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.” (Gal. 2:20). The giving of Himself is the giving of the gospel of salvation or everlasting life. It is the giving of His name which also prepares us for His new name. The Lord chastens whomever He loves (Heb. 12:6). We have the privilege of fellowshipping with the chastenings of those who have gone ahead of us. God withholds things when He sees such things can spoil the program of salvation.
Job, with all his stature, still had fears (Job 3:25). He was afraid of losing the hedge that God put around Him. That fear is witnessing to the fact that obedience had not been completed. God approved Job’s trials because He had already seen his end. Similarly, God has seen how we will look at the end of our lingering trials. We must come to a point where we would understand the program of salvation and agree with all the demands on the path.
One of the fears Job had was that of being naked. That trial removed the hedge around Job and made him naked. God wants to cover the shame of our nakedness by clothing us with salvation. It takes a lot to endure the season of shame. In some seasons of our lives, God will make us get accustomed to things that may seem shameful because that is the only way we can own the gospel. God restored the fortunes of Job and raised him into a high priest. God even tampered with Job’s genetic make up.
God permitted the contradictions in the seasons of the seven churches because everything they needed was contained in the seed that He gave them. God wants to do much more than we are trusting Him for. He only needs the eternal power to first be installed in us, then He will be able to do things that are exceedingly abundantly above all we can think of (Eph. 3:20). This is the eternal realm or the realm of the throne. God has brought the incorruptible seed into our midst and this means He wants to do what He did in the life of Abraham.
“(As it is written, I have made thee a father of many nations,) before him whom he believed, even God, who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were.” (Rom. 4:17). What reprogrammed the biological dimension of Abraham’s body was a kind of the incorruptible seed. This is what God wants to do in us and we all must desire it. A time is coming that the Lord will restore our bodies. We will see salvation in our souls and bodies; it is part of the wonders that await us in our day. We will believe the demands of the seasons of long-suffering.
God has raised a standard in our generation and men have applied their hearts to those standards, such that other men can behold it. The same way God could condescend to reach man in the days of Noah is the same way God wants us to desire His nature and essence. Just as it was said of the Philadelphia church, a company of men will also come to that place of not denying His name and, having suffered long, come into salvation.
Blessings!