Eternal Glorious Fountain Ministry (EGFM)
Programme: Believers’ Convention 2023 (Day 5 - Evening Session)
Date: Thursday, 10th August 2023
Minister: Pastor Kayode Afolabi
Transcript Excerpt
“And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. (Gen. 1:26). The desire of God is to make man in His image and likeness. This therefore means that man is supposed to come into or inherit the very image of God. But this plan was thwarted when man fell. Nonetheless, the plan never changed in God’s heart.
“In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began…” (Tit. 1:2). Eternal Life is not an afterthought; it has always been the promise of God for man. Therefore, God wants to strengthen churches to ensure that the body of Christ focuses on this program of God. This is a program that we have to take seriously. The Church is God’s technology or tool to bring about His purpose, which is to save man. Therefore, if a man is not a part of the Church, certain things would not be done in him. The reason for the addition of souls to the Church is so that those souls can go through the program of salvation (Acts 2:47).
The program of salvation in a man starts by learning the milk of the word. It is essential to learn good milk of the word so that God can raise us to be men who can learn His life. There is a kind of stature that can learn the life of God, and it is in the church that we are raised into that stature. This is why Christ is introduced to us in the church. Unfortunately, it is at this point that people are tempted to leave the kind of churches that focus on the teaching of Christ, which is the foundation (of knowing God). This is not exactly an easy process because it is in such a season that we are weaned from the milk of the word.
“And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ. [2] I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able.” (1 Cor. 3:1-2). The Corinthian church was slow in getting weaned from milk, thereby limiting the Apostles from communicating higher doctrines to them. But the Apostles were also patient with them. The intent however remained for them to quickly move into the meat of the word because without the meat of the word, Christ cannot be formed in people. The doctrine of Christ is the foundation of the building that God wants to form in men, therefore, it is essential that we learn it. Christ is not the whole building but we must give attention to learning it because the learning of Christ’s doctrine causes certain things to expire in us.
A baby is not a perfect human that can function on the face of the earth. Such a one cannot navigate life properly, therefore, they must grow into stature. The essence of the meals (preachings of the word) that we are partaking of is to cause us to grow up to become a man. Parents have to feed their babies with meals (knowledge, insight and understanding) so that they can grow and learn how to navigate their way in the world. The same also applies in the realm of the spirit. The realm of the spirit is tangible, for through it, we are able to lay hold on the things we are learning and live them out. Our previous definition of ‘life’ is not the kind of life that God intends for man.
“This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind, [18] Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart…” (Eph. 4:17-18). What makes us produce a life that is different from the life of God is blindness. But when we come to church, we are given the message of Christ to make us grow to the point where we can take the message of everlasting life. It is only a grown man (in Christ) that can take the message of everlasting life.
“Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.” (2 Cor. 5:17). In Christ, the new creature is taught about the new life so that he can be exposed to it. This is because the life in this world is not the life that God ordained for man. The doctrine of Christ often makes us feel out of place because we have gotten accustomed and comfortable with an environment that is not our real environment. But everything about our lives as believers is new, despite our interactions with an old civilization. There is a new civilisation for a man in Christ which we must begin to learn in churches.
Without learning Christ, we cannot really love God. We have to be introduced to the ministry of reconciliation before we can really love God and do His will because ordinarily, our desires war against the will of God. It is through Christ that God was reconciling the world (men) to Himself (2 Corin. 5:19). And as we learn and grow, God will begin to bring us into His learnings, which will birth His life in us.
“Forasmuch as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart.” (2 Cor. 3:3-6). One ability of New Testament ministers is that they can write laws in souls. These laws are to first bring us into the perfection that is in Christ, after which we will begin to learn the laws of everlasting life. These laws govern the civilization of God. Just as it is in our natural learning which is governed by laws, the world to come, in which we are being raised to be administrators, has its laws. We will become co-heirs of the life of God through the things we are learning in this Convention.
Ministers of the New Testament have the ability to write laws in a way that is unlike the Old Testament. This is because there was a veil in the Old Testament. It was the veil in the Old Testament that did not allow Moses to fully communicate laws to the Israelites. But in the New Testament, through Christ, that veil was taken away (2 Corin. 3:14-17). As we give heed to the word, the laws that define our lives in God are written in us. These words we are hearing will alter our thoughts and cause us to journey into life.
Our civilizations (the laws we live by in our souls) are of utmost importance in deciding our placements in the world to come. Therefore, we must be written upon to be born in Zion. Our enemy would fight to keep us comfortable with our present state and make us settle for simple christianity. But we should not be people who just desire to make heaven; rather, we should give ourselves to be written upon.
The new civilisation that God is bringing is a new world. However, there is no assurance that some people will have interactions with God in that world because they will still have to learn and journey. In the natural, it is possible for one to be located in the United Kingdom but never see the Queen of England. In the same way, one may go to heaven and never share in the administration of God. Our conversation should be that of the world to come, for this is what will save us and cause us to share in God’s administration, life and fellowship. There are people on earth who are having more fellowship with God than those who have gone to heaven.
The essence of the doctrines we are learning is to mature us into a perfect man – one who can take higher doctrines. A time will therefore come, when we will be able to understand these higher doctrines. That is when we would not just want to make heaven but also desire to embody God’s life. We should desire to use the days of our flesh to learn the life of God; this is our civilization. We should ward off distractions and arrange our lives more, for the life of God.
The Apostles called the life of the "world to come" their conversation (Heb. 2:5), even while they were on earth. They were living out this life in the days of their flesh. The conversation of the world to come would arrange our natural lives. The nation of Israel was taken to the wilderness as a typification of a season of Christ. The purpose of this was to make them become His people, even though they did not know who He was. That season was ushered in to put them into shape and communicate that there was a place He was still taking them to. It is those who endured the wilderness season that were able to go through into the promised land. These things were written as examples for us to see (1 Corin. 10:6). But there is yet a promised land for us – one that the Old Testament saints did not come into.
“How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation; which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him…” (Heb. 2:3). We should not neglect this ‘so great salvation’ that the Lord is speaking through certain men (his ministers) so that we do not miss out on the inheritance. Jesus inherited God’s plan for the new world, and that is what He wants to share with us. But He cannot share the inheritance with us if we do not give our lives to learning the inheritance. Our goal is to embody His life in the days of our flesh.
Listen to Audio Here: Learning the Civilization of the World of God
Blessings!
Chukwuka Edoziuno - 8 months ago