Eternal Glorious Fountain Ministry (EGFM)
Programme: Believers’ Convention 2023 (Day 4 - Evening Session)
Date: Wednesday, 9th August 2023
Minister: Pastor Clay Kamma-Odunze
Transcript Excerpt
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ…” (Eph. 1:3). There are different birthings in Christ. The first birthing of a man is for his spirit to be raised to sit with Christ (Eph. 2:6). However, the soul of such a man also needs to be raised to sit with Christ. This is one who is in the womb of Christ. A person can be a seed in that womb but has not developed some parts. Such a one has to go through a particular feeding in the womb – one that would cause the development of a shape that the Father can receive. God is our Father (as a result of the new birth), but we (our souls) do not yet have the proper form or shape to be truly fathered by Him.
“For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.” (Rom. 8:29). There is a foreknowledge of us in the spirit; we are here because of God’s predeterminate counsel. There is a time God brings us to formation (Jer. 29:11). Man was first created (Gen. 1:27), then he was later formed (Gen. 2:7). The man that was created is different from the man that was formed. The problem of man is not in creation but in formation. Formation is a process. One of the things that will trigger formation is the receiving of breath. Many are born but not yet formed. As such, they cannot be received as sons and daughters by the Father (2 Cor. 6:18).
To be formed in God, there should be a transformation. Before we were born again, we had been formed; we were born from another womb called “this world”. The world is a system that is organised to raise children of Satan.
“And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.” (Rom. 12:2). What makes us change state in the realm of the spirit is the kind of in-formation we have. We cannot be conformed until there is an in-formation. This is what is referred to as precepts. God wants all men to come into His image. The expected end God wants to bring us into is the conformation into His image. The example of one who has come into this image is the Son who became the express image of His person (Heb. 1:3). The Son is the only one who had the grace and ability to bring out what was in the heart of God; He interpreted it in the flesh so that we can bear the same image.
There is no formation without image-making. Every man’s soul is programmed to make an image. The sign that a man is existing is that he is making image. That was why God instructed the children of Israel to have no other image. After the children of Seth chose wives for themselves, they became flesh and the Spirit of the Lord would no longer strive with them (Gen. 6:3). The Spirit of the Lord was striving to keep the image of God. It was during that time that men were calling upon the name of the Lord (Gen. 4:26). That was the image at the time.
Cain received the ministration of image from Satan. He was opened to the advancement of imagination from which he became fruitful and birthed the intentions of Satan. Cain offered his soul as a womb for Satan to sow a seed. After completing the gestation period, he gave birth to a son, Enoch, whom we saw physically, but what that actually represented was what Cain produced by building a city (Gen. 4:17).
“And Cain knew his wife; and she conceived, and bare Enoch: and he builded a city, and called the name of the city, after the name of his son, Enoch.” (Gen. 4:17). While Cain built a city and brought inventions upon the earth, the sons of God were calling upon the name of the Lord. They had no inventions because the Spirit of the Lord only allowed them to form the image of the Lord. This is the plan of the Lord. We cannot really worship God without the formation of image.
While we are on the journey of everlasting life, we have peers who are making progress in the natural. As we begin to give thoughts to those natural achievements, the Holy Spirit raises a standard to stop the advancement of those thoughts. God was engaging the sons of Seth to keep them focused on the plan because there is something God wants to complete and give birth to, but Satan does not want us to come to the full formation of that image that is in the heart of God.
“For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.” (Jer. 29:11). Our future is not embedded in any natural advancement. The thoughts God has for us are good; they are everlasting plans. The camp of the sons of Seth was very different from that of the sons of men (sons of Cain). The latter camp seemed to be more prosperous than the sons of Seth. Whenever they (the sons of Seth) tried to think about what Satan presented to them as prosperity, the Lord interfered and brought another vision like He did to Abraham.
We define greatness according to our understanding. Abraham was discouraged by his circumstances at that point, so when God was making these promises to him, he did not see the joy of it. He thought God did not see his situation (Gen. 15:2), but God speaks from the realm that He is; He communicates to us according to what He is seeing.
While God is speaking with excitement about what He has for us, what we really see is our image. God was warring with His sons until they decided to take wives for themselves. We can see this in the natural sense of the sons marrying beautiful women, but there was something else that the soul of Cain had conceived as a vision or an image called 'city'. What Cain had in the natural was as a result of what he bore in the spirit. However, when Eve gave birth and saw that the Lord had restored another child in the order of Abel, men began to call upon the name of the Lord (Gen. 4:26).
This does not mean that the daughters of Seth were not beautiful. However, the sons of God wanted to break into that cord of union by the reason of what was beautifully seen about the development of the sons of men; that is the world, and it is a woman, according to the book of Revelation (Rev. 17). Then the sons of God committed fornication with that woman. They chose that destiny by themselves without waiting for God to complete that gestation period and deliver what He wants to bring forth. That which God wants to bring forth is better than what Satan wants. However, Satan is always willing to hijack what God wants to bring it and present it as his own glory.
The value of a trade can be known by what the buyer is willing to exchange for it. In the wilderness, Satan was ready to put everything he had laboured for at stake, just for Jesus to pledge allegiance to him (Matt. 4:8-9). Satan is a wise pearl merchant, who is lusting after every pearl in the Kingdom. Satan knows about all kinds of good stones and he could see that all the treasures are in Jesus. He knows that the stones he had before are not the same as what he saw in Jesus. So, he was ready to commit the glory of this world just to get the allegiance of Jesus. He was looking for what Jesus was rich with. The amount of temptation that Satan puts on the table for us gives an indication of the riches we have amassed.
“For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?” (Matt. 16:26). Jesus said these because He had gone through the experience. This verse also shows that Satan lusts after souls and he has been nursing the ambition to go up beyond this present heaven. He looked into Jesus and saw that the arrangement of stones in Him are not the same as the present angelic arrangement.
The stones in the land of God are better than the stones of the present angels. The land is the souls. If Satan had succeeded, he would have gone beyond this present heaven with legal evidence, just as he did with Adam. He knew what he was after in the wilderness. What Jesus’ soul had was the material of the world to come – the mount of God – which Satan lusted after. He has the ambition to go above the heights of the cloud, and so he wants us to remain earthly.
Everything Satan has promised in this world will not raise our heights by one cubit, for they are all horizontal promises. There is no height in all the glories of the whole world. Jesus was rich with heights. He had ascended while on earth, but His conversation was beyond this present heaven, rather, it was in the heavens of God.
The captivity of the enemy is not about restraining us from having natural wealth. The house of the captivity of Satan is the house of thoughts and imagination. When we take his thoughts, we become enslaved by them. The true deliverance is for God to send us His own thoughts, which are not evil, but good (Jer. 29:11); they are thoughts of heights.
The thoughts we converse with are a representation of where we are. Nowadays, men are not only earthly but are also hellish as a result of their thoughts. However, Satan is now bringing thoughts from the lake of fire, and they are beginning to breed in certain quarters. These are the thoughts that end in destruction (Prov. 14:12).
There are birthings that we need to come into to break into the realms of God where we can be received as sons and daughters. There are thoughts that are given to purge thoughts. Satan wants to drive us to where he is going – the lake of fire. This was what he sold to Cain. We come into conversations by what we see. When God saw the continuity of evil imaginations, He stopped striving with man (Gen. 6: 3-5).
God is desirous to birth children of the everlasting Kingdom. We must ask ourselves what our fellowship actually is; we must know what our vision is. Our predestination is in the womb of God. The calling is a seed. To be justified is Christ; to be glorified is to be like the everlasting Father (Rom. 8:30).
Rounding off: Reverend Kayode Oyegoke
This is an x-ray of our innermost parts. If we are not very careful, including ministers, we would not know that we are making images. There are forces behind ungodly image making and one of them is love. If the things we love are passing away and we do not have a grasp on them, Satan will begin to talk to us. Another force that is involved in recruiting a worker of iniquity is fear
“And deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.” (Heb. 2:15). The people Paul was talking to here are believers who had journeyed for a long time. They had made progress and were expected to venture onto perfection but they wanted to return to simple Christianity. This fear was what God conquered in Abraham. God is saying to us: “Fear Not!”. Fear is a spirit; it has its feelings. Mostly, those people who are doing very well in the things of the natural life have been cultured by fear.
Abraham conquered five kings with just three hundred men. After his victory, Melchizedek even blessed him and declared him the possessor of heaven and earth (Gen. 14:18-20). Yet, Satan still struck Abraham’s heart with the fear of childlessness. Warfare was going on in Abraham’s heart. This was another army fighting Abraham, an invisible army. Melchizedek was praying for the enemies of Abraham within. God had to remind Abraham that He is his shield and exceeding great reward (Gen. 15:1). God had to preach Abraham out of that state. This was a ministration of the Spirit. Without it, Abraham would have been discouraged.
Do not be afraid. Take a step and fear not; by this, we would pass into the realm of escape. All we need to be concerned about is how we would see God. That is the duty of man— to fear not and keep God’s commandments (Ecc. 12:13).
Blessings!
Chukwuka Edoziuno - 8 months ago