Eternal Glorious Fountain Ministry (EGFM)
Programme: Believers’ Convention 2024 (Day 3 - Morning Session)
Date: Tuesday, 20th August, 2024
Minister: Reverend Olabode Busuyi
Transcript Excerpt
One of the greatest job ministers have especially in the New Testament is feeding the flock. One thing that happens in every assembly and ministry is that there is always a moment of teaching even when it is not called a teaching ministry—moment of teaching, exhortation, dispensing God’s words to God’s people and prayers. One core thing in the New Testament that God gave as trust to the church is the ministry of the word. There is primarily only one ministry in the scripture: the ministry of the word. Every other thing is attached to it (Acts 6:4). When we look at what God has for His church, the central is the ministry of the word. The ministry of the word is done at various capacities and levels.
“Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh. [45] Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his lord hath made ruler over his household, to give them meat in due season…” (Matthew 24:44-45). God’s household is primarily set around the ministry of service that comes by the word. Every other thing we do in church is defined by the meat that is provided in the household.
The church belongs to Jesus, no pastor can claim ownership of the church (Math. 26:18). It is Jesus' church and the people are His flock; so they are members of His household and what God expects in the household is that food will be available (1 Tim. 5:8). What sustains a household is food. The first love you can show to a household is that you should provide for your household. God expects that there is provision for the household; there must be meat in the house.
When Jesus resurrected, the first thing He asked was if they had meat (John 21:5). They said no and He provided meat. Any house without meat has fallen below what is known as a household. There is nothing that can make a woman as sad as when there is no food in the house. A woman’s joy is to see that meat is provided. One thing that will be pronounced and expected in the end of time is that there will be wise servants who are also faithful. A wise servant and faithful servant is expressed in what you provide. You cannot rate yourself in service outside provision.
“Moreover it is required in stewards, that a man be found faithful.” (1 Corinthians 4:2). Stewards are not owners, stewards are servants. They are not men who just provide, they are men who take from the master—who depend on the master for provision. They are not those who depend on themselves. Even if the master’s provision is not adequate, a steward will be unfaithful to add his own. In stewardship, you are not allowed to give your own, you give what the master provides.
When ministers define their ministry by themselves, they have not gotten it right. Ministers did not hire themselves, somebody hired them and gave them instructions that they are stewards. A servant or a minister is a steward (1 Pet. 4:10). One of the most difficult things to do on earth is to stand in the place of trust to feed the flock.
“Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood.” (Acts 20:28). Somebody made ministers overseers. When we are children, we easily follow and depend but there is a time in our lives that we feel we have attained; even in the message of eternal life, sometimes one can feel one has it all. Eternal Life is not a minister’s business, message or work; the Lord is the owner of the business. If the Lord does not help one, natural supply can blind one’s eyes. Before one attains a particular status, they labour so much but when they attain it, they use such status to define their progress and independence.
At the end of the day, we will not be asked what church we attended but what we have become (John 1:12). There is power to become; there is something He has within Himself to bring about a change—His own desired change and not our own desired change. People can have access to money and it is not God's desired change. If he is going to do it by himself then it could be an agenda for another season.
“Take heed unto thyself, and unto the doctrine; continue in them: for in doing this thou shalt both save thyself, and them that hear thee.” (1 Timothy 4:16 ). Salvation has to first of all happen to one who is given the trust of stewardship because it is out of what you have that you can provide.
“Ye are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read of all men…” (2 Corinthians 3:2). The epistle is written first of all in the heart of the minister. The flock is the heart of the Shepherd; that is why the flock can hardly outgrow the Shepherd's heart because the flock is the product of the Shepherd's heart. Every one of us wants to be a faithful steward but the problem most times is our self. Self is strong; everyone has something that will affect their arrival.
Man’s strength is frail (1 Samuel 2:9). Jesus' major thrust for serving at the end of time is meat. When we move towards the end of time, the highest job is meat. Other assignments are subservient to the ministry of the word. This is where we have problems/differences. The labour of the body will become easier when the place of meat is prioritized. What we look like now is a product of what we eat. If we solve that, we will discover that we are all God's children, though from different places.
At the time of Jesus and the apostles, the basic teaching of Christ was not difficult because it was handled by the apostles. Nobody attained the status of a minister without the apostles. That was why Luke could not call himself a minister of the word. But in today's church, Luke would have called himself an archbishop. Luke's two books (Luke and Acts) were the longest gospel of the New Testament books.
“Even as they delivered them unto us, which from the beginning were eyewitnesses, and ministers of the word; [3] It seemed good to me also, having had perfect understanding of all things from the very first, to write unto thee in order, most excellent Theophilus…” (Luke 1:2-3 KJVS). Luke was not a by learner, he was of the crop of the first. He was there in everything Paul went through. But they had no strength to say of themselves that they were ministers of the word. In the curriculum given to the apostles, being a minister of the word was a high placement because so much hangs on the head of ministers. The reason for the church was to create a place for souls to be saved (Acts 2:47).
The Church is the most delicate place on earth. God will restore the fear and regard of discerning the body. The body is a house of spiritual heritage—people whose eyes are opened and are instructed in order. The reason for this is that the table is holy and sacred.
“And Jesus went out, and departed from the temple: and his disciples came to him for to shew him the buildings of the temple.” (Matthew 24:1). Though they were following Jesus, the beauty of Jerusalem did not leave them.
“And Jesus said unto them, See ye not all these things? verily I say unto you, There shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down.” (Matthew 24:2). What you behold is what you become; it drives your intentions. Some people come around meetings and it is not the Spirit or the thoughts of God that attracts them but the fashion. Jesus had to respond in this manner because with the Judaic mind they had, it was not easy for them to look away from Jerusalem. The temple was their heritage. In the spirit, the temple is a heritage but not the physical temple. God will purchase us as a temple.
Jesus said to them that everything would come to rumbles so they asked Him questions. “And as he sat upon the mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?” (Matthew 24:3). Of these three questions which they asked, only one had to do with them which is the signs of His coming. So Jesus spent time on the signs of His coming. One thing that defines His coming is meat provisions.
“Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his lord hath made ruler over his household, to give them meat in due season…”. (Matthew 24:45). Each coming of the Lord represents a different season in the spirit, which is characterized by different levels of meats.
“The signs of thy coming” is represented by Parousia which means that they are aware of the gradual coming or nearness of the Lord. When the issues of priesthood are being discussed, if basic things are not put in place amidst ministers, it can look like the message of a man or a group of people. Though we might not all preach it the same way, we must preach the same thing except we are not on the same journey or procession.
Coming or nearness is journeying. Going towards Him is what determines His nearness; if you do not move towards Him, He will not change His position. It is you that will find the meat He is giving and by that, you will see the Lord coming nearer. There is always the meat of nearness. The meat is the strength to migrate, move, walk, run, and soar because the journey is far. Walking is not enough, you have to change to running and then change running to mounting up with wings as eagles. One needs the renewal of strength for that. One cannot be old in movement.
God is the One Who was, Who is and Who is to come, meaning He will keep coming. God wants to always come to creation. That is why in eternity, there are still phases of God's revelation. Now we are seeing the redemption revelation of God called salvation, but there are other things in God and they will keep unveiling phase by phase. This is why the angels keep crying “holy, holy, holy”. They are before the Lord and are beholding Him. “And the four beasts had each of them six wings about him; and they were full of eyes within: and they rest not day and night, saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come.” (Revelation 4:8).
“Wherefore if they shall say unto you, Behold, he is in the desert; go not forth: behold, he is in the secret chambers; believe it not. [27] For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. [28] For wheresoever the carcase is, there will the eagles be gathered together.” (Matthew 24:26-28). That coming of the Son is still Parousia. Eagles eat flesh/meat, so there will be a kind of meat at His coming. Before He spoke about His coming, He said there will be many teachings of false Christ in various places by false prophets. False prophets are those who say Christ but not the Christ that can trigger His coming. There is a teaching of Christ that is meant to trigger coming.
It is not good for one to quickly declare himself as a prophet of the New Testament. The job of teachers and prophets in the last days is not mere. If you take that place (without being called), you can become a false preacher. If you call yourself an exhorter, it is safer. Barnabas was an exhorter, Paul laid and he exhorted it. Though when they were called, the word was ‘separate to me Paul and Barnabas’. Barnabas was okay with being an exhorter. Jesus left a wisdom with the apostles that saved them from the rest. The apostles would teach and then Barnabas would exhort. We need God's help to attain the quality of the souls of these apostles.
At the coming of the Son of Man, there will be meat for eagles, but not for the whole church. The coming actually is designed for eagles. “For wheresoever the carcase is, there will the eagles be gathered together. [29] Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken: [30] And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.” (Matthew 24:28-30).
Light has come to move people into the realm of His coming and they are assembling together. In that assembling will be the sign. It means a people will appear in heaven. These are the people that will handle the dragon and clear the space for salvation to reach all men. Any time something in us refuses these things, it is not us, it is a work done in one’s building.
The work that will be done in the end is clear: clear the heavens, remove the footstool of the stars of heaven and shake them before their time because they do not want to come down. These things will happen. Jesus said it and also said that the heaven and earth will pass away, but not a jot of His word will be unfulfilled. We cannot afford not to be a part of this project.
“And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.” (Matthew 24:30 ). That coming is the finality of His comings. So Jesus began from Parousia and brought it to Ecomnia (finality). The comings are what will lead to the final appearance. The comings are described by meals/meats. The coming is His appearing, as used by Paul in his letters to Timothy. Jesus is in heaven but He is not appearing, He is not revealed. One may get to heaven and not see Jesus. If you see Him bodily, He is not appearing. This means He is not making Himself known or unveiled.
There is a Son in heaven who cannot be seen by the physical eyes. His coming is a revelation; it is the making known of who He is because He is higher than the heavens. If you are not moving towards Him where you are, He will not reveal Himself. There must be an activity of looking for Him; and to look for Him is to look away from things. You cannot look at Him and look at something else. So one thing Christ does is to purify your eyes so that you can gain the stability to look. There is no alternative to the eyes being single.
“Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord…” (Hebrews 12:14). To see is to sight His revelation; to see Him unveil who He is as an heavenly being. But the instruction is to follow peace; this is because peace is a way. If the instruction above is not followed, no man shall see the Lord. You are meant to see the Lord on the earth. How do you see Christ? When He is revealed inside your soul!
Paul has redemption, so he can remit sin. Anyone who has seen Christ should be able to remit sin. Jesus was not just revealed to him, He was revealed in Him. He assimilated Christ, so he called it his gospel. “In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins…”. (Colossians 1:14). Not everyone has redemption. We are still being redeemed but some people have redemption already; they have forgiveness of sins. When you meet Paul, you either run away or become a changed man. This was the case with Onesimus; he robbed his master but by being with Paul, he became a profitable brother to Paul. They do not claim what they do not have; the things around them are fruits.
It is only a steward that can learn waiting. Waiting is about not doing nothing; it is to keep depending on supply from the master. “[9] For they themselves shew of us what manner of entering in we had unto you, and how ye turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God…” (1 Thessalonians 1:3-9). This means these saints had not begun service; they needed to be turned from idols to serve the living and the true God. Turning from idols means you are going to wait for the Son. A man who is waiting for the Son is a man who has turned from idols with the heart of serving. The revelation of the Son is the revelation of the living and true God. The Son has to teach us how to serve. The Son is a servant, a minister of the sanctuary and of the true tabernacle.
Serving in this case is not church work. There is a service the Son practices: how to serve God in righteousness and holiness that ends up in everlasting life. That is what He owns that makes Him the Lord. If you are going to serve, then you have to learn to wait for His Son from heaven. The revelation of the Son from heaven is not Ecomnia, it begins with Parousia and ends with Ecomnia. At a point, the church misconstrued it as the Lord's coming so Paul wrote to them again.
“Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto him, [2] That ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand.” (2 Thessalonians 2:1-2). The day here is talking about the imminent return. Even when Paul talked about being caught up, he used Parousia.
“In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.” (1 Corinthians 15:52). This is talking about Jesus coming to give resurrected bodies. There will be a trumpet or message at the time of giving bodies, at the last trump. Towards the end of the last trump, we will start seeing the power to change bodies which we cannot invoke by ourselves.
As they make the tides heavier, the appearance of the 4th man will also be heavier as in the days of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego when they were thrown in the furnace. Tribulation is not just a trigger for the ultimate appearing, it is a trigger for our entrance into the kingdom; it is a trigger to the appearance of the Lord. Tribulation is not to make us afraid but to make us know that the Lord wants to show up (Acts 14:23). There is a way the spirit life responds to pressure, it does not show up without pressure.
“And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many. [12] And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold.” (Matthew 24:11-12). What can tamper with iniquity is when Christ is taught for men to wait for His coming. After charity, there is fervent charity. Love not waxing cold is not just zeal, it is journeying in the learning of Christ to charity.
“But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved. [14] And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.” (Matthew 24:13-14). Christ is meant to position men to wait for the coming or the revelation of the Son from heaven. That is what Jesus called this gospel of the kingdom—the gospel of enduring to the end or receiving the comings. It is called the gospel of the kingdom of the Father and the Son. Christ is the Son of God but He does not show all of the Father. He became the Son so that He can inherit all of the Father and fully represent the inheritance of the Father. The fight of the false teachers is against Christ.
“Who by him do believe in God, that raised him up from the dead, and gave him glory; that your faith and hope might be in God. [22] Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently: [23] Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.” (1 Peter 1:21-23). There is no way to cleanse us until we come into ‘one another’. Charity is maintained to fervent charity. Love of the brethren is love of cleansing. A pure soul is a sanctified/justified soul. There is a preservation of the spirit, soul and body (1 Thess. 5:23). They are all speaking the same thing telling us to be positioned for the revelation of the Son. Anytime the Son is revealed, it is to make manifest a life. Christ is a life. The moment of learning Christ life to become holy and be without blame is to place us in a position of receiving the promise of life. What the Son archives in Himself is the promise of life.
“Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.” (2 Corinthians 7:1). His revelation from heaven is to give us life. When you obey, the reward is life.
“Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils; [2] Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron…” (1 Timothy 4:1-2). The faith is for the promise of life. Somebody is fighting them from completing the learning of the faith. The faith is to grant life.
“But refuse profane and old wives' fables, and exercise thyself rather unto godliness. [8] For bodily exercise profiteth little: but godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come.” (1 Timothy 4:7-8). The Son is archiving promises and the promise is to give life. When He is revealed, it is to give life. The life of Christ which is godliness positions you to receive the life of the Son.
“For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, [12] Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world; [13] Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ…” (Titus 2:11-13). There is a word of life revealed already through Christ’s gospel. We are supposed to learn to live righteously and soberly in this present world. What the Son archives is the blessed hope and glorious appearing of the great God. Christ is called the Son.
The essence of the Son which is called the fellowship of the Father and the Son is meant for those who have received Christ message. One cannot learn the fellowship if you have not learned to deny ungodliness and worldly lust. This positions you to look for, as it is not at the point you complete the curriculum that He would show up. You have to wait for Him to appear to save to the uttermost. The Son archives promises of life that deals with death. You cannot inherit a life of death which opposes if it is not dealt with. The building of a life is the cracking down of death. When the Son shows up, He shows us the law of His life that destroys the structure and fiber that death has raised in a man.
Life is to come (1 Tim. 4:8). If a life is and a life is to come, it is not the same thing. A life to come is a higher life. The Son piles life in layers. He used the first life to own a higher life. The higher life is what He is to reveal from heaven. It is called everlasting life or the reason for the priesthood that is over the sanctuary. He is to minister the sanctuary which is Christ, and to give the true tabernacle which is the true God and Eternal Life. We can say that the Son will show up to show us the One who is true and make us know we can journey to the One who is true and we can be in His Son. What John called ‘this’, was ‘that’ before (1 John 1:1, 1 John 5:20).
“That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life…” (1 John 1:1). “And we know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding, that we may know him that is true, and we are in him that is true, even in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and eternal life.” (1 John 5:20). This describes the journey of ascension to attain to a place where we can see Him who is true, and become the true building of God. That is the meat; it is what the meat is for. Milk, meat and strong meat are all meat.
Blessings!