Eternal Glorious Fountain Ministry (EGFM)
Programme: Believers’ Convention 2023 (Day 4 - Evening Session)
Date: Wednesday, 9th August 2023
Minister: Pastor Tayo Fasan
Transcript Excerpt
We should check for things that are subtly fighting our hunger. We must learn to take inventory and note those things, otherwise, they will repeat themselves and hinder us from receiving all that the Lord has for us. The enemy has used some weapons against us, and even after we overcome them, he will still come back to tempt us with those weapons. The enemy brings distractions and discouragements to fight our hunger. Many of us are yet to recover from some discouragements, and the sources of those discouragements are expectations that are not born out of righteousness. We must understand that God will only honor what He has said concerning a natural or spiritual promise, and they have their timing. God has a way He addresses needs.
Most of our prayers are not by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost; some of the prayers that make us lose sleep are not birthed in righteousness. God does nothing without His word. We should keep our mind and not be careless with the use of it. The world is busy with activities; this age of information is subtly packaged to compete with the revelation knowledge of the Lord. There are subtle reasons why we are not hungry for God. One of those things is what God has done through us and for us. This is why Paul said he must forget those things that are behind (Philipp. 3:13). It takes the glorious power to forget things that are behind. As long as we take glory in what the Lord has done through us, it becomes difficult for us to respond from the midst of our souls.
The things that fight the hunger of some are the cares of this present life (Matt. 13). Many people have come across these waters (or word of righteousness) but they have drawn back because the cares of this life choked the word they heard at the time they were supposed to bear fruits. Many resources of our souls are still being consumed by cares and wrong expectations around this present life. If we take away these cares, we will have the capacity to hunger for the real things being spoken to us.
Sometimes, we wake up and the first and predominant thought on our minds bothers on cares of this life. The peace Jesus has given to us is such that should make us relate to this present life in a priestly way, or like priests do. As long as you have a hunger and a thirst for everything else outside righteousness, you cannot generate the required hunger to call the Lord. And as long as this is the case, one will be strange to the breath of faith or of love that should enable us to relate with God’s presence. The things limiting us from generating hunger for God are all other expectations that are inferior or contrary to salvation. We should learn to deflate thoughts that the enemy brings to us to distract us. Any conversation that is not compliant with the world to come is actually inferior and not worth our meditation.
We have not yet gotten to where some of those patriarchs got to where something was recorded in their souls, such that scriptures recorded that they were strangers and pilgrims on earth (Heb. 11:13). They had moved from the precepts to the lines of the word they heard. They were able to use the faith of that testament to condemn the world. They knew that there is nothing in this world that they could take out of this world (1 Tim. 6:7). The patriarchs came into the threshold of everlasting life but did not complete the curriculum of living and abiding like we are being called to fulfil. This kind of testimony is very costly. We must have practiced being a citizen of another world for us to be certified as strangers and pilgrims on earth.
The gospel is what will extract a soul from this present evil world. Even after one has escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust, one must use the everlasting gospel to escape the corruption and evil in creation. We must look for the world to come because this current world lieth in wickedness (1 John 5:19). Obedience to the demands of faith, hope, and charity is what facilitates our escape from the corruption that works through lust. However, after escaping from the world, things that are still in the fabric of the present can still be used to tempt us. “Who gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God and our Father:...” (Galatians 1:4). After escaping the corruption in the world that works through lust, we still need to be exposed to the will of the Father and God to deal with the expressions of the world that are used to tempt sons. When we are relating to the everlasting gospel, we qualify for certain thoughts, temptations, and seductions of Satan. Though heaven is downloading everlasting life in us firstly as knowledge and precepts, it is not yet a treasure in us until we have the works or fruits of the knowledge.
“For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day.” (2 Corinthians 4:16). The perishing of the outward man is the perishing of a wrong law in that body that can make a man perish. God permitted Job's trial because there was something in Job that could still make him perish. A time came when Job saw mercy or salvation in a shadow. “Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him: But I will maintain mine own ways before him. He also shall be my salvation: For an hypocrite shall not come before him.” (Job 13:15-16). Job knew that he was not fully saved. If God had stopped the program of salvation in Job, he would have perished. He later saw salvation by moving into all the lines of the knowledge he had. He saw God’s tender mercies and his latter days were restored.
“I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me. but I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” (Romans 7:22-24). All the unpleasant experiences Paul went through were aimed at detonating the wrong law in his body. When we go through unpleasant circumstances, the Lord would rather have us look at the salvation kept in our tribulations. This should be our consolation. There is always something in our trials, persecution, and temptation and that is why God permits them. This is what makes God faithful always. We may not see it at first until we wait till the end like Job did. We need to wait till the end of some persecution and trials to piece together the puzzles of salvation that God is working out.
As long as certain trials will make us weak or dismember sin in us, God will permit it. When a trial is being supervised by God, the end of it is left for Him to determine, not our prayers. Our prayers should be for us to cooperate with that trial. The Lord will bless us with some specific commandments; that is how heaven will ratify that they have shown us mercy. The sins of sons are what they wrongly do with their eyes. There is a call upon our eyes to see salvation, so we should strictly look unto Jesus (Heb. 12:2). It is a labor to look not at the things that are seen and to look on things that are unseen. It is a labor to adventure the unknown.
God wants to collect a wrong strength from our souls by bringing us to an unfamiliar ground as He did to Job. God wants to acclimatize us to unfamiliar grounds because our souls love familiar grounds. It is when we are brought to unfamiliar grounds that the Lord exposes fears and makes us weak or truly strong to wrestle with spirits.
When a man is really asking for hidden wisdom, he should only have one mind (James 1:5-7). What forms Christ in us is a wisdom (1 Cor. 2:7). It implies that the next curriculum in God is also a wisdom. God's hidden wisdom is what will make known the ways of God. Many times, when we are praying in the spirit, we are actually asking for wisdom. Wisdom is what will raise princes in the spirit. The greatest need for a Christ company is the hidden wisdom of God. However, for a Christ company to see the measures of the word of God, the activities of the Spirit of God will be needed.
Even after we have escaped the corruption that works through lust, there are worlds in Satan that he brought to the likes of Cain that he would also bring to us. However, as long as our eyes are given to the meditations around the everlasting gospel, we will be saved.
Listen to Audio Here: Living by the Sight of Salvation
Blessings!