BELIEVERS' CONVENTION 2023 DAY 2 EVENING SESSION PASTOR TOPE FALAYE

Eternal Glorious Fountain Ministry (EGFM)

Programme: Believers’ Convention 2023 (Day 2 - Evening Session)

Date: Monday, 7th August 2023

Minister: Pastor Tope Falaye

Transcript Excerpt

"For this cause I Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles, [2] if ye have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which is given me to you-ward…" (Eph. 3:1-2). Apostle Paul is talking about the dispensation of the gospel of Christ. A part of the burden of the Lord that is in the hearts of God’s servants (in the house) is the dispensation of the gospel of God. In this Convention, God will open the dispensation of the gospel of everlasting life that is seen throughout the Bible and which God has been proclaiming in every of our meetings. 

There are two gospels in the New Testament: the gospel/tiding of Christ and everlasting life. Apostle Paul wrote about these two gospels as the gospel of "peace" (Christ) and "glad tidings of good things" (everlasting life) – "And how shall they preach, except they be sent? as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things!" (Rom. 10:15). In times past, many of us see scriptures casually because we do not see them from the eye of doctrine.

"For we have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of his majesty." (2 Pet. 1:16). Apostle Peter is saying that what they followed was not a cunningly crafted story but that they followed the power, and also the coming of the Lord Jesus. What Peter rendered in the above Scripture is the same thing Paul was speaking of in Romans 10:15. Paul called it “the gospel of peace and glad tidings of good things”. These two gospels are not taught to unbelievers. Unbelievers are often told of the goodness of Jesus and how He died for them so that they can become born again. It is after this that they are taught the milk of the word, which is also not part of the two gospels.

One thing Satan’s work in humanity has done is that it has empowered us to be strong where we should be weak and made us weak where we should be strong. A silent work has been done in us that makes us become discouraged when it comes to learning the two gospels. And we often do not have such attitudes to our natural occupation. We unconsciously find ourselves murmuring when it comes to the things of God as though they are so burdensome. This is because of the work that the adversary has done in us. And this is why we are firstly given the "milk of the word" when we become born again.

"And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ." (1 Cor. 3:1). Although our spirits are recreated to become a new man when we become born again, our souls (hearts and minds) are still babies in the things of God. Because of the makeup of the gospel in Paul, he struggled to preach Christ (spiritual things) to the Corinthian brethren who are still 'babes' in Christ. The only thing that the life of the Spirit in him could do was to preach the milk of the word. Saints are fed with the milk of the word after becoming born again; this is a meal that turns a baby into a healthy child. A healthy child will then be fed with the teaching of Christ, which Peter calls the “power of God”, and Paul calls the ”gospel of peace”. This is the first of the two gospels.

Over the last couple of years in our community, the Lord has brought the gospel of Christ to us. Paul, in Ephesians 3:1-2, was talking about the dispensation of the gospel of Christ which is among the first things God gave to him. That gospel is meant to groom the soul of a child that has been healed from carnality. In the last couple of years, God’s servants have laboured around the doctrine of the faith of the Son (Gal. 2:20) – the preaching of Christ. This is what a well-fed child ought to stay on and have as the next level of education. We do not jump courses in the spirit; we must finish one course before another one is brought to us.

Believers’ Convention is aimed at strengthening the milk of the word, the preaching of Christ, but more importantly according to the burden of the Lord for the season, it is to also lay the slabs of everlasting life by setting them in order. The burden of the Lord through His servant covers much more than the precepts of the teaching of everlasting life, it also includes lines.

"Whom shall he teach knowledge? and whom shall he make to understand doctrine? them that are weaned from the milk, and drawn from the breasts." (Isa. 28:9). Those who are being weaned from the milk of the word are healthy children. The milk of the word translated them from being spiritual babies in their hearts and minds to become children. When the Lord weans such a one, He begins to bring knowledge and doctrine to them. The first phase of learning for one who has been weaned from the milk of the word is the knowledge and doctrine of Christ.

The Lord, through His servant, began to explain to us that knowledge is the giving of precepts. Precepts are revelations. However, there is a ‘spirit’ of precepts. When a minister is teaching, he might be teaching with a sense of doctrine. But you cannot hear doctrine immediately because you must first take the precepts – the orderly laying of the thoughts of God. Precepts must be upon precepts (Isa. 28:10-13). When we hear knowledge, we are hearing precepts; this is a must for anyone who would hear doctrine.

Doctrine is the animation of the laws of precepts. The things that we know are what we can store up as precepts. One who does not have precepts may never get to doctrine. Precepts come before doctrine; it is the knowledge which we should have in our minds. Doctrine is life; this is a further coming of God to show how precepts should be lived out in our souls. Doctrine is also called the ‘spirit’ of the precept.

“Line” is the instrument by which God measures us (Isa. 28:10). A man may be high in precepts yet be a dwarf in lines. Lines speak of how we are doing in life, not how we are in precepts. Every time the leading of the Spirit comes to a man after he has known precepts or revelation, it is to deliver to him measurements into life.

Doctrine is derived from the word ‘doctor’ because every man is sick and needs life. Doctrine is the prescription of spiritual medicine to turn knowledge into life. It can be as simple as learning how to honour your wife. The devil fights us with lines in our homes, not just precepts. The reason for doctrine or instruction is to make sure we come into commensurate life to the precepts we have. We cannot escape instructions of the Spirit when doctrine is coming to us. This means we should embrace any form of instructions of the Spirit that come to us; this is how we can measure up in the lifestyle that is in accordance with the knowledge one has gained.

“And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure.” (2 Cor. 12:7). Paul had an abundance of revelation but still said, “...lest I should be exalted above measure." It means we can be exalted above what we know. But the exaltation of a man should come by doing doctrine. Doctrine is not just knowledge, rather, it is the understanding of life that knowledge is meant to produce in us.

Part of the burden of the Lord is that we will begin to come into commensurate doctrine of what we know by the mercies of the Lord. We will be a people that will be doctored by the Lord. Satan has doctored us wrongly, but the Lord wants to doctor us into life. It is in doctrine that we find 'ways'.  A man who is allowing the ways of the Spirit to have its course in his soul is allowing the giving of spirit into his soul till he is healed. This mountain is a mountain of healing; there is a grace to convert our precepts into doctrine (Amen).

Blessings!