Programme: School of the Spirit (SOS)
Date: Thursday, 13 July 2023
James 5:6-8
“Ye have condemned and killed the just; and he doth not resist you. [7] Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain. [8] Be ye also patient; stablish your hearts: for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh.”
The Lord is patiently waiting for the precious fruit of the earth; He wants to reap the fruit of the earth. He has been waiting for a long time. The epistle of James is an epistle encouraging the saints, tilting and inspiring the saints unto everlasting life. The epistle of James has a similar tone to 2 Peter— they are epistles unto everlasting life. The epistle of John are preparations and admonitions for Eternal Life. Jesus has been patiently waiting for over two thousand years for the precious fruit of the earth; He could only reap a portion in a measure.
The coming of the Lord varies; there was a form of it the early church experienced. They had the revelation of the Lord in their midst, they experienced it. (Acts 2).
The Church began after Jesus left, and started in the early Church (Acts 2) till the book of Revelation: from there, we see that the whole story of the new testament is about the Church in the new testament era. The first church started in the wilderness, they were called the Church in the Wilderness. They took them out of Egypt. When they were in Egypt, they were under bondage, they had no vision and no direction: they lost sight of the promised land until God came and brought deliverance. He quickened them and blessed them with sight and began to restore order. Order started in the wilderness.
The new testament followed the same pattern. God started with a church and ended with the era of that church to start another. The first church was one that was characterized by the children of Israelites. We saw it right from Exodus to Deuteronomy when they entered into the promised land. We saw the journey of that church, their prosperity, their falls and restorations that took place several times.
In David's season, he made sure that Israel had a connection to God. He opened the tabernacle and advanced the course of God. He brought people closer to God; people who were unable to come near were brought near. It was a season of davidic mercy and Israel felt it. Israel knew mercy preserved David. When David was around, worship was restored. He built a Tabernacle for the ark in Zion and He put it in a tent without any calibration (there was no outer court, no holy place), and the ark was pleased to stay there.
No blood was shed to come into the Tabernacle. The ark was not in Shiloh, it was in Zion - David's city. There was nothing like the great day of atonement which ought to be happening every year. David became a light to Israel. David's walk preserved Israel. David was a great king. There were no rituals as usual except the ones David ordained. The Levites were restored to the Tabernacle, they could come to presence. The priests were not too present, but David worked more with Levites, the Jeduthun, Asaph, Korah, men who played the cymbals and harps; they could prophecy. The Spirit took them over, and then they began to sing before the presence of God. That is how Psalms was opened. David would write Psalms and tell the chief musician to sing them; that was where spontaneous worship was born. David was a psalmist; he created Psalms by the help of the Spirit. He was poetic in nature. He was blessed with the creativity of the Spirit. These things were a sacrifice to God, offerings of the lips— praise to God.
Hebrews 13:15
“By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name.”
A Zion church was born. The Zion community became great and many came to learn the way of Zion. Zion became a model for Israel, they began to get the gene and nature of David; the nature of David became multiplied in Israel. He began to culture the people, people were being regened, drinking into the flow David was creating by the Spirit. Psalms and hymns began to go on and on with other activities.
Psalm 87:2
“The Lord loveth the gates of Zion more than all the dwellings of Jacob.”
A culture was in Zion; it was Davidic. David gave birth to people who were selfless, and that was how they broke into the New Testament prophecy; by their lifestyle, they saw the future. Many who were not even Israelites left their city to come abide in Zion so that they can be cultured after the lifestyle in Zion.
Amos 9:11-12
“In that day will I raise up the tabernacle of David that is fallen, and close up the breaches thereof; and I will raise up his ruins, and I will build it as in the days of old: [12] That they may possess the remnant of Edom, and of all the heathen, which are called by my name, saith the Lord that doeth this.”
Acts 15:16-17
“After this I will return, and will build again the tabernacle of David, which is fallen down; and I will build again the ruins thereof, and I will set it up: [17] That the residue of men might seek after the Lord, and all the Gentiles, upon whom my name is called, saith the Lord, who doeth all these things.”
The goal of David's tabernacle was to seek God. David was a seeker. We need many Davids in our generation who are after the desire of the Lord alone. Presently, we have many Sauls in our generation. Sauls are men with their vision. Davids are those who are jealous and drunk with the wine of the Lord alone; they just want to know the Lord and allow His plan to be fulfilled. There are many things Satan has done to hinder the plan of the Lord from prospering. The desire of the Lord is for fruits and offerings to come out of the earth, that the Lord can come and harvest His own on the earth. After David died, the culture began to die. His son could not handle it. David wanted to build a Temple. The prophet Nathan told him to go ahead because He saw that David's desire was always for the Lord; but the Word of the Lord came and said He would not build it, His son should do so insteadv(2 Samuel 7:3-13).
2 Samuel 12:24-25
And David comforted Bath-sheba his wife, and went in unto her, and lay with her: and she bare a son, and he called his name Solomon: and the Lord loved him. [25] And he sent by the hand of Nathan the prophet; and he called his name Jedidiah, because of the Lord .”
Jedidiah means a man loved of the Lord; this was the destiny of Solomon. The season of the temple was lower than the season of the tabernacle. David advanced Moses and fulfilled it. There was a tabernacle in Exodus before the Tabernacle of Congregation that only Moses was using; it had no ark but the cloud of glory would come and settle on it. The God of Glory would appear to Moses in that tabernacle. Israel saw it, God spoke with Moses face to face as a man would talk with His friend.
The tabernacle Moses built by vision for Israel was not for him but for the people. But David advanced the Mosaic tabernacle. He brought a kind that was personal with the presence; there were no courts or holy place; it was direct communication with presence. David translated the other calibrations in himself; he was the courts and the holy place. The calibrations were seen in him. The presence of God was shown to David, He accessed it. David wore the ephod the high priest wore. He wore it to agree to God's order, which showed that God allowed Him in His presence.
When David first carried the ark, he didn't do it well and so the ark killed Uzzah. Later, he went to study by books and noticed that he was not supposed to ordinarily take the ark, there was a garment for presence. Linen garment is the wearing for presence and the Lord wants to bless the Church with it. The garment is beginning to fall on many; it is for access to God's presence. Men would be able to access the presence of God easily.
The servant of the Lord is sent to bring men into the presence by revelation. He is sent to teach and inculcate in the Church the attitude of coming. He is sent to open Jesus to the people, because when the Church sees the Son of God, she will access presence. Our raiments need to be changed. We come to church to exchange garments. In the new testament, it is the soul that wears the garments.
Linen garment is a kind of soul that has the capacity to come into presence. To wear the garment is to wear resemblance. Linen is actually the Son of God that a soul puts on. The garment is worn by preaching and teaching and the activity of the Holy Spirit. All the manner of garments the priests and angels have been wearing are all manners of Jesus. Jesus is a garment that is being worn for the officiating of the Tabernacle in heaven and earth. An angel in Revelation said he has the testimony of Jesus. What is given to angels is a measure of Jesus' testimony but it is a shadow. The old testament was a shadow, the angel's testament is a shadow also, but a stronger one and with an heavenly resemblance. But the testimony we are about to carry that is being given to us by revelation is higher than what the angels have or has existed in the old testament (Heb 10:1). This season is a season of great breakthroughs.
When David was about to die, David began to give the dimensions of the temple to Solomon. Solomon was not the one that got it himself, it was David. The dimension of the Temple was not given to Moses. The Tabernacle is the critical and core temple, any ordinary person cannot come near it. The people had to be dealt with, raised, built and consecrated to stay around it; some were even killed. The Tabernacle cannot be opened anyhow. When the ark was taken to Israel, human beings had gotten weakened. They had to fence it, then courts were built to filter the energy coming from the Tabernacle.
The Temple is bigger and more elaborate. The Temple accommodates more than the Tabernacle. The people could not communicate with the raw tabernacle, hence the many compartments. The season of the Temple was a weaker season. That was when a king could marry 1000 women. The king who handled the Tabernacle dared not.
When David was old, He was given a young damsel but because of the dealings of God, He didn't touch her. He was a man of the Spirit. But Solomon was endowed. He had excellence; he could interpret geography, botany, and other creations. He wrote about trees, had a measure of sight, could see elements, clouds, metals; and he wrote them down. Despite this, he didn't have the powers of David. The power of David was the Spirit of God's will. The will of God is the key of consecration. David had the heart of loving God.
There is the season of the Tabernacle and there is the season of the Temple. The church in the wilderness transited to the church in the land of the promise. But the church in the land of promise got weaker and weaker. Canaan was not the land of promise, it was a shadow. There is yet a promise left for us (Heb 4:1). The land of promise was assaulted, the people did not continue in the covenants, they lived below the tenets of the promise because they could not see the promise. Those who first got to the land saw the promise to a degree, but as the seasons passed, strength was worn out. The souls became weakened due to blindness. Blindness cut short the proper definition of what the promise is.
The temple was destroyed and injured, Herod repaired it. After Jesus came, the temple was completely erased. Salaudeen and Salaadeen of Turkey from the Utman empire, nearly a thousand years ago besieged Jerusalem, fought with the crusader and conquered them. They took Jerusalem and went to the place of the temple, destroyed it and built a mosque on the same spot. The mosque is still there till now. It is said that the Jews are looking for a way to destroy it. A lot of people believe that the temple would be a rallying point for Christians and Muslims. A lot of Christians are praying that the temple be rebuilt. There is no issue with rebuilding the temple but that is not the temple of the new testament.
In the day when Solomon was dedicating the magnificent temple he built with solid gold, Solomon knew that God does not dwell in houses built with hands.
1 Kings 8:27
“But will God indeed dwell on the earth? behold, the heaven and heaven of heavens cannot contain thee; how much less this house that I have builded?”
God is not going to really dwell in a house made with hands, that is not His real dwelling. The essence of a physical place is for people to congregate so that God can build His real habitation. The habitation of God is a man. God wants to build men up. Coming to church is not futile; construction is going on as words are being preached and taught. Some attack the time spent in church but that is a negative attitude. Some started coming and stopped, such is departing from construction. No one hears the revelation of Jesus and remains the same. Some are taking the stones laid in them to Babylon; this ought not to be so. We must not take the holy stones God is putting in us to Babylon.
We ought not to be tired of staying under the revelation of Jesus in the church. One should not put one’s hands on the plough and look back (Luke 9:62).
Isaiah 66:1-2
“Thus saith the Lord , The heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool: where is the house that ye build unto me? and where is the place of my rest? [2] For all those things hath mine hand made, and all those things have been, saith the Lord : but to this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word.”
The Temple is a man. The stone that would be used to build this kind of man is poor and contrite. God would put His dominion in a poor and contrite heart. As we hear preaching and teaching, we are being built; stones are being deposited into us. We must be resolute to be built until the end. We must have an attitude that is totally resolved to become a full habitation of God.
We do not give up on the way; we stay and be built. We must not be afraid; we must be resolved and we will win our warfare. Our warfare is to be built to go up. Evil spirits do not want us to rise, they do not want us to be built; they would bring all manner of distractions to break our concentration and our commitment to our building. Christianity is not about money; it is not about getting all our physical needs met.
The Kingdom is not about carnal bread. We must grow to appreciate Jehovah Jireh as the provider of spiritual stones rather than physical bread. We must begin to praise God for the revelation of the Son of God to us— that is growth. The project of God is construction. God wants to meet edifices when He comes. He wants to see activities of building going on; the site must not be empty. Construction must be happening in our souls. When construction is going on, it is a humbling time, not a jamboree time. The work is intense because the edifice is to reach and surpass the heavens. We are growing up to the Son of God and the Son of God is higher than the heavens— this is our destination (Heb 7:26). God is coming for the precious fruit of the earth, and He has long patience for the fruits until He receives of the early and the latter rain.
When the rain must have fallen, there would be a produce from the rain. God pours down the rain. He does not receive rain; He receives the produce that the rain causes to grow.
Isaiah 55:10-11
“For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater: [11] So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.”
The word should not return alone (void), it should return with fruits. This is not according to the evangelism we know, rather it is a change of nature. When a seed is planted, it dies for a new one to come up. The seed that enters the ground is not the same that sprouts. A shrub should grow and become a mighty tree. God is not expecting us to return in the form in which we came to the earth. We have not fulfilled our course when we do not change and bring forth another body according to the image of the Son. When the latter and former rain works in the soul, it will not return anyhow— it will become a more precious fruit; we would become divine. From the book of Revelation, we can see that God would not reap just any kind of fruit; God reaps clusters. Harvest is a reap of clusters.
Revelation 14:18-20
“And another angel came out from the altar, which had power over fire; and cried with a loud cry to him that had the sharp sickle, saying, Thrust in thy sharp sickle, and gather the clusters of the vine of the earth; for her grapes are fully ripe. [19] And the angel thrust in his sickle into the earth, and gathered the vine of the earth, and cast it into the great winepress of the wrath of God. [20] And the winepress was trodden without the city, and blood came out of the winepress, even unto the horse bridles, by the space of a thousand and six hundred furlongs.”
Jesus is He who is coming to press the vine. Naturally, to press the vine, it is gathered in a mighty place and then young women would jump on it and begin to press it. Jesus is coming to press vines. But the above scriptures speak of the vines that are unto wrath. The clusters of the earth the angels would reap are kings of the earth, captains, and armies.
Revelation 19:17-18
“And I saw an angel standing in the sun; and he cried with a loud voice, saying to all the fowls that fly in the midst of heaven, Come and gather yourselves together unto the supper of the great God; [18] That ye may eat the flesh of kings, and the flesh of captains, and the flesh of mighty men, and the flesh of horses, and of them that sit on them, and the flesh of all men, both free and bond, both small and great.”
Those flesh are the covering for the vine.
Revelation 19:19
“And I saw the beast, and the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against him that sat on the horse, and against his army.”
He would not take the earth completely, He will take the grapes. The grapes are the strong ones that have might to war with the Lamb. The rest are not yet matured. Those remaining on earth, who would refuse to go with Jesus, are those who will turn aside and receive the mark of the beast. A time would come when believers would not be here on earth physically.
There would be a fulfilment of the prophecy in Thessalonians; those who would be left on earth are men who received the mark of the beast. There are those who would be killed also; that is when Jesus would come to take the kingdom of the beast from him. Jesus would now rule for a thousand years with the rod of iron. Those He would be ruling are men with full-formed rebellion nature. These men are men who have become divine in darkness, that is why they are vines. One can be a vine and not yet have grapes; such does not yet have fruits. A sign of fruit is that such a one can be contentious; contention is a sign of strength.
To bear fruit is to multiply, to multiply is to be an army. When God multiplies a man, such a man is an army. The purpose of the military is that one man can handle many civilians. Six armies with their arms is enough for a hundred civilians. They have been armed (multiplied) by their training. An army is an armed man. To arm someone is to multiply him.
Hebrews 6:14
“Saying, Surely blessing I will bless thee, and multiplying I will multiply thee.”
Multiplication is to make a man many in himself; hence the sequence: one shall chase a thousand, two shall chase ten thousand; that is an army (Deut 32:30). A time came Jesus showed up because Satan had an army which was developed and ready to fight war with the Lamb from Heaven. The beast, through Satan, has developed men to make war with heavenly beings. It would take certain nature to be feasted to bear fruits which are the grapes of the tree. The rest of the men are still just trees; they are not yet bearing grapes.
Revelation 14:19
“And the angel thrust in his sickle into the earth, and gathered the vine of the earth, and cast it into the great winepress of the wrath of God.”
From this scripture, it is men that would be cast into the wrath of God, not natural physical grapes.
Revelation 19:18
“That ye may eat the flesh of kings, and the flesh of captains, and the flesh of mighty men, and the flesh of horses, and of them that sit on them, and the flesh of all men, both free and bond, both small and great.”
The grapes are captains, kings, mighty men and free-born. These free-born are soldiers, soldiers in their levels. Any army of the nation is the vine of the nation. Jesus needs to war with those vines because they protect the nation, it is the power of multiplication of the nation. No one can take a nation without taking its vines. Jesus reaped the dark vines who are the evil dark armies. Their flesh needed to be made a demonstration before all. Wine would come out of a cluster of vine, blood would come out when flesh is pressed. The evil armies had blood to be pressed; the blood is life, it is an evil life that must run its course. The Lamb must smell it and be satisfied that He has taken vengeance. The Lamb is a very dangerous being. In the book of Revelation, He was not called Jesus, He was called the Lamb throughout. Till the world to come, He would be addressed as the Lamb.
The Lamb warred with the kings, took the false prophets and destroyed them. He slayed the rest with the spirit coming out of His mouth. Then, He ruled over the remaining who had the mark of the beast for a thousand years (Rev 19:15). After a thousand years, Satan was released and he was still able to make the rest an army for himself.
The people remaining on earth at the time were not procreating because God would not want to endanger the seeds coming, so He closed the gate of children coming to earth by the power of the rod of iron (Rev 19:15). What was on earth was translation of resurrection, those who were on earth were like angels. The rod of iron is an instrument that should not be joked with. They were not dying, no one diminished; the numbers of men on earth remained. God would bring an atmosphere that would make them remain.
Jesus would rule for a thousand years; these are physical years. Some try to describe it by revelation because the Bible says a thousand years is like a day. But it will be a physical number of years that Jesus would spend ruling. In those days, men would look for death and would not find it, it means that physical death can be taken away. There are such powers available, Jesus has them.
1 Timothy 6:15
“Which in his times he shall shew, who is the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings, and Lord of lords…”
Jesus is all powerful, and He can do many things. Jesus told Peter, He could allow John to stay till He returns. He has powers that could make John stay on earth till He returns.
John 21:21-22
“Peter seeing him saith to Jesus, Lord, and what shall this man do ? [22] Jesus saith unto him, If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee? follow thou me.
Jesus did not allow these men who disobeyed him to die for a thousand years. But to show they can still die in their souls, Satan came and deceived them; and they became his army and besieged the army of the saints, after one thousand years Jesus reigned, but fire fell from heaven and consumed all of them.
We must not be found in the company of these evil beings. All those who are not for the Lamb are going to experience wrath all through until the age closes. We must not joke with God; we must keep on with Jesus.
God is giving us a mystery to partake of Him, His nature and His frame. The best way to name God is that He is a temple. God is a Temple and that is what He represents. Everything on earth, in heaven and in the world to come revolves around this frame. The devil cannot do anything out of this order, even though he fell, he is still a temple. All he is doing is the opposite of what he used to do before. There are two forces living on earth: the evil temple and the Good Temple, who is God. The Good Temple is constructive and the other is destructive.
Satan is already destroyed but God can never be destroyed. God has the secrets of immunizing us from the powers of destruction. God is blessed forever. He knows how to tie us to Himself such that we would gain strength not to crumble. God is a protector of houses; He is a shielder of men, a defense to our person. We are a temple. The core calling in the heart of God is for men to be made temples to house Him. God has the hope that fornicators, thieves and all others would come to repentance in the space of their lives and fulfill this original mandate for their lives, which is for Him to dwell in man. When we get born again, we are not seeing this mandate yet. There are still things that stop us from assuming this responsibility and taking on the constructive allegiance God has written for us. We should go on to be constructed and become who God is— we should be built up. But Satan seeks to destroy; when he discovers we are growing up, he wants to pull us down.
Satan pulls down, God raises up: Satan kills, God resurrects. Resurrection means God is building and raising us into being the house. Things we do here on earth speak of the invisible; we build every day. The things we do with our hands speak of the vocation we build. Things that grow help us know that we should grow. The trees are speaking to us to grow, we see growth everyday. It is actually a message in nature; we are surrounded with growing things so that we can be reminded to keep growing. Our resurrection lies in growing up. We must gradually keep growing till we attain full stature like Jesus did.
Jesus in His course on earth arrived at a point where He said, “I am the resurrection,” (John 11:25) He grew beyond the heavens. So, we can be taller than the heavens in our soul. Our earth is not our limit. How God sees is not how man sees. A growing tree will eventually bring forth fruit. A sign of fruit is that we can give birth to life, we must not be fruitless. When there are no fruits on our trees, the Lord will not come to us. What calls the Husbandman is fruits, if He comes and He does not find fruit, such a tree can become just like the fig tree which was cursed (Mark 11:12-25). But Jesus has long patience for us to fruit what a mere man cannot fruit.
What God is expecting from every man is called the unexpected. Human expectation is different from God's expectation. The actual purpose of a man is to do the desire of God, which is to become a temple for Him, a mere man cannot do that. Becoming the temple of God is the unexpected that God desires.
No matter what we do on earth according to man's standards we have done nothing because we have not lived to meet God's expectation, such has lived below God's standards. Man is blessed, fortunate and so loved of God that what He has called him to do is what mere men cannot think
God wants us as men to bring forth what even Angels cannot bear, it is the unexpected. God's fruit is to appear on a man. Man's duty is to bear the fruit of God that God would call for and eat. Anything we become according to the earth is nothing until we do the unexpected. The unexpected cannot be achieved until the program, understanding, powers and materials that would fertilize our womb are given to us to make us do the unexpected. Mary gave birth to what a man could not engineer, that was a high commission. God using Mary is speaking to us that we need to also birth Christ in our womb - the Son of God and the Eternal Son of God. God's intent is that He can reap a man that would be able to bear Eternal life and immortality. This is our duty and the reason we are on earth.
Our job is to do the unexpected; it is only by doing according to the precept of Christ that we would not live as a mere man. We must live beyond the aspirations of men and the pleasures they seek. We must be dissatisfied until we bear the unexpected. We should bear fruits that present heavenly beings cannot bear. We are to give birth to the unexpected. Satan hates us because He knows the reason we are here, so he would seek to bribe and distract us with all manner of pleasures. We should grow to become higher than the pleasures (position, places, riches, fame) of the earth. We should arrive at a state where nothing can distract us from this heavenly vision. We must not be carried away by earthly ambitions.
We can do whatever we find to do with our hands but we must remember that everything amounts to nothing if we do not fulfill our real essence of bearing Eternal Life. So we must seek Eternal life and fulfill the real thing we were sent to the earth for. As we engage in our carnal endeavors, we should pay keen attention to the heavenly calling. We must not just fulfill our carnal ambition, we must fulfill our eternal call. Our main job is to do the unexpected.
Blessings!