BELIEVERS' CONVENTION 2023 DAY 1 EVENING SESSION PASTOR TOSIN GABRIEL

Eternal Glorious Fountain Ministry (EGFM)

Programme: Believers’ Convention 2023 (Day 1 - Evening Session)

Date: Sunday, 6th August 2023

Speaker 1: Pastor Tosin Gabriel

Transcript Excerpts 

The primary business of the church on earth is to look for the Lord’s coming. Our hearts should call for His coming. There must be a heart engagement for Him to come. It is not everyone that will be ready when the Lord returns, but some will. The Father also wants His Son to return. However, the church must partner with Him to bring our Lord Jesus back (Heb. 10:37). The Lord would use this year’s Convention to call the body of Christ to the attention and the awareness that the Lord is coming back. There is a possibility that the mindset for the return of the Lord is not very strong in our hearts because there are things in our hearts that we want God to do that are against His coming. For some, they do not want Jesus to come because they want to get married before He comes.

Many believers are only trusting God for natural achievements but do not want our Lord Jesus to come; they neglect the workings of His nature in them. If this continues, Jesus Christ will never come. This shows that the enemy has done a terrible job of making us forget our true home. This present earth has become home for many souls. The Lord wants to use this meeting to open our hearts and redirect our focus, cry, passion, and labour. This is because sometimes, we labour wrongly. We can verbally say that our Lord Jesus is coming but not labour for His coming.

There is a place Jesus is now; it is also a state (John 14:2-3). He wants to receive us unto Himself so that we would also be there with Him. However, He cannot receive us without coming again to our souls. He must first come again, then receive us unto Himself so that we can be where He is. Jesus has a high burden, and the greatest of His burdens is that He desires to come back. The purpose of all our gatherings is to entertain His coming in our hearts. Our Lord Jesus will come in the course of this meeting. There will be many appearances in this year’s Convention. Hearts will engage the Lord and we are going to see the Lord.

It has pleased the Father that the Son should appear to us. There can be no appearance of Jesus to anyone without the Father’s approval. Before the Lord can engage us in a light, the Father must have approved it. When Jesus resurrected from the dead, He appeared to five hundred people in different places at the same time (1 Cor. 15:6). Likewise, the Father wants the Son to appear and encounter hearts. The important question is “What would we do with His appearance?”. We do not know what these five hundred did with His appearance. However, out of five hundred of them, only one hundred and twenty persons waited in the upper room. This means that three hundred and eighty had other things in mind other than the appearance that was promised to them (Acts 1:15).

In Isaiah 6:3-5, there was an appearance that judged Isaiah. Every appearance of the Lord to a man judges corruption in his heart. Isaiah was prophesying “woe to the people” but when he encountered the Lord, he saw the woe in himself. It is possible to judge others and not judge ourselves. Isaiah saw the woe in himself as a result of an appearance. Many wrong perceptions of ourselves in our hearts will drop in this meeting. There will be many teachings that we are familiar with, but they will come with encounters. Jesus is coming this year to sup with many of us (Rev. 3:20).

The matter of the Lord’s coming is the matter of the end. There are many things we carnally believe are the matters of the end. We have seen some of those things manifest on earth, but the end is still yet to come. We have seen wars and other events that were thought to precede the end, yet the end is still yet to come. The subject of the end is in salvation and eternal glory (2 Tim. 2:10). A believer who is engaging the things of the end is one who is engaging in salvation (1 Pet. 1:5). What will be revealed in the last time is salvation.

Juxtaposing 1 Peter 1:5 and 1 Peter 5:1-2, we see that the things that will be revealed at the end are things of salvation and glory. Until the message of salvation is brought to the forefront in the body of Christ, we are not yet getting ready for the end. The only purpose that many believers have these days (after the new birth) is to be naturally prosperous. Years ago, the focus of being born again was to be rapturable and people were ready to inconvenience themselves for that purpose. However, it became eroded because the program of the end was not in view.

The opening of the light of everlasting life to the church is an indication that we are moving to the end. Satan can overrun anything that people ignorantly take as the signs of the end. Once salvation is opened, then the end has come. The message of everlasting life that is bringing the ‘appearing’ of the Lord Jesus to us is to make us ready for the end. There are appearances that prepare us for the final appearing of the Lord, and they are in the gospel.

“I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: [8] Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing.” (2 Tim. 4:7-8). There is a day called “that day”. Paul had encounters and appearances, by which he fought a good fight and finished his course. Paul finished his course and his ministry (Acts 20:24). It is possible for a man to finish his ministry and not finish his course. That course was what he kept pressing on for (Philip. 3:13-14). Paul knew that once he hits the mark, he will get the prize. By finishing this course, he inherited a crown of righteousness that will be given to him at “that day”. The appearances of the Lord to us are to prepare us sufficiently for that day. There is a day the Lord will give a crown of righteousness. We must use our lives on earth to run the race and finish it.

There is a day God has ordained in the spirit when He will trigger a phase of reward. These words are to make us see the weight of everlasting life in the days of our flesh. Paul entered a state of life where he knew that he had a crown. The crown was not for him alone but for everyone who will do likewise. The life Paul lived can also be lived by any believer who is willing.

There is a time when the righteous judgement of God will be upon every man (Rom. 2:5-7). That day is the day of granting Eternal Life. Eternal Life is a reward that will be given to those who have patiently continued and finished the course of everlasting life. It is not what we do by ourselves that can hand us the reward. Our goodness and wisdom cannot qualify us for this reward. It is what God brings to us according to His works that can qualify us for the reward. If we are going to get the reward of Eternal Life, there is a particular work we must do to qualify for it. The appearance of the Lord to us is so that His work would be initiated. He will first appear to us to initiate His work and when we do His work, it will become our work.

“Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. [13] For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.” (Philip. 2:12-13). We cannot work out our salvation by our own strength. It is what God initiates that we should work out. What He initiates are commandments. Every appearance of the Lord to our hearts is a commandment. However, the way the Lord appears to one person differs from how He would appear to another. This is because He knows each person’s frame. Appearances bring laws and commandments. As we do the commandments, we are doing the works of God and our natures will be altered thereby.

Blessings!