Eternal Glorious Fountain Ministry (EGFM)
Programme: Believers’ Convention 2024 (Day 6 - Morning Session)
Date: Friday, 23rd August 2024 Ken Igbinedion
Minister: Reverend
Transcript Excerpt
A time will come when we will have to leave our current state of service, whether or not we like it. The important thing is, while you are there, ensure that something meaningful is done in you and through you.
Why are we where we are? Why are we here right now and why are others not here right now? If many are called and few are chosen, what are the criteria? Everybody must know that we are in a race to get somewhere.
We started having issues in the place of the new creation realities which ought to have been an open eye to the realm of the Spirit but many got there and got stuck. The journey was terminated. Many could not see beyond that place; people were standing at point A and were claiming to be at the end of the race. As beautiful as new creation reality is, it has made a shipwreck of many people’s faith. When some hear that the Son of God is come, they can ask: “How can One who is within me come?”. When the purpose of a thing is not known, abuse is inevitable, so understanding must come. Where there is no understanding, death is inevitable.
“When any one heareth the word of the kingdom, and understandeth it not, then cometh the wicked one, and catcheth away that which was sown in his heart. This is he which received seed by the way side.” (Matthew 13:19). They can steal away because you did not understand. The one who has understood a matter is one who can stand a matter from under. Whenever Jesus taught, He always asked if they understood. This is not head knowledge, it is a heart formation.
New creation realities were to show us what Christ has done. We must understand that Christ's race is not our race. When we hear that Christ has done it, that was His own race; we must run our own race while looking at Him. We have to run this race looking up. “Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.” (Hebrews 12:2).
It is not about gathering information, it is about experiencing formation. “My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you…” (Galatians 4:19). It must be clear that you cannot stand at the new birth and be claiming the end of the race; there is so much to learn. Ministers that God has called are going through in-service training; they were not made perfect before starting ministry. So some of them have to reteach what they had thought previously. Assumption is the lowest form of knowledge. If it is a journey, it means that everybody must enroll by himself/herself and this journey is a birth canal where they do not accept anything that is of your own. Anybody that refuses to go through this canal cannot see God.
“Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.” (John 14:6). The journey is to come to the Father and not heaven. Heaven is what it is because the Father is there. There is a goal and that goal is God. In heaven, God is a Spirit to those who are spirits. Jesus cannot be bypassed to get to God. He is the manifestation of the unseen God, not only here, but even in heaven. There is no way any man can know God outside Jesus. If it is not clear, we will think we are doing religion. Christianity is not a religion. We are not trying to please God; somebody has lived and pleased God and God testified of Him (Matt. 3:17, 17:5). Follow the steps of the One who has pleased God and we will please God. That is what brought about the Bible.
Abraham and the patriarchs did not read any Bible; men had lived and pleased God before the Bible was written. It means that God is beyond the Book, but it was given to us as a memorial so that our references will not be outside the Book since we were not in the days when men lived and pleased God without the Book. Now, you have to come to the Book to please God. In the book, you see how men have walked, things that have been laid for us, and how to please God. So you cannot choose your own. Do not query that Jesus is come. Jesus is come!
We are not here to learn the English language. “Jesus is come” is not theology, it is a sounding of the Spirit that only those who are waiting and expecting Him will hear. In the Jewish religion, trumpets meant different things; there was a trumpet to journey, to stop a journey, for war, celebration, and gathering. So, everyone must give ear to the sound. You must know the sound. The sounds of the trumpet became an anthem to the Israelites that they could recite.
“Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.” (Isaiah 7:14). “For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.” (Isaiah 9:6). A child is born, a son is not born. A son is a product of an instruction. This is why a son is given. A child must be born. We are all children of God but to become sons of God, you do not claim it. Sonship is a product of a work. Therefore God does not want us to remove the process. This verse says ‘His name’ and ‘not His names’ shall be called Emmanuel. Emmanuel means God with us, and this is different from God is with us. The goal of this whole work is that God who is Spirit, who is out of the scene, wants to be seen. The reason for the church is that God wants to be seen. It is when God is not seen that other religions think we are the same.
“In those days there was no king in Israel: every man did that which was right in his own eyes.” (Judges 21:25). The essence of Jesus’ coming was to show us who God is. Thank God that Jesus died but beyond that, the death of Jesus was not primarily because of you. Certain things must be clear so we can sit down and learn. There is a King to which we are gathered and that is the reason for the gathering. You do not come to God because you want to do ministry. The end must be clear. We have not been called to Him because we want to serve Him. God is not primarily looking for who will serve Him. Your understanding can create a limit because your understanding is your expectation. Even in your expectation of Jesus, there is a reason you are saying He should come. God called you to become. Otherwise, you can get so carried away by ministry and your building is at a limited level. There is a building going on.
God saved your spirit but He purchased your soul. Our souls were like slaves. When slaves are bought from a slave market, they do not automatically become the child of the buyer. Slaves do not regard those who bought them as their parents because they still have a mindset that they are slaves. The danger in claiming the things of the spirit is that one can think all of God has been invested in him because he has been purchased. Once saved is not forever saved!
Salvation is a procedure, it has a beginning and an end. It is a process and as you are going through the process, you are changing, you are becoming that for which He called you. Your spirit has been saved though so much still needs to be invested. What God is doing is that He brought every soul into a place called church and this is where heaven is downloading the presence called Jesus. Jesus is the meal, He is the food.
Jesus went ahead to break bread and said this is my body given for you, He then said this cup is the new testament in my blood which is for you. (Lk. 22:20). “Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you” (John 6:53).
There was a reason why people followed Jesus, so also there is a reason why we all came. The problem happens when they want to change the hope of our coming to the hope of His calling. Abraham was led to leave His country and this was not because He read a book; he did not have any reference for this (Gen. 12:1-2)
“Then said Jesus unto the twelve, Will ye also go away” (John 6:67). After the five thousand Jesus fed left, one would have expected Jesus to follow up on them but He instead said to His 12 disciples, ‘Would ye not also go?’ and Peter responded that to whom shall we go, thou hast the words of Eternal Life (John 6:68). This was a test and one would have thought that Peter had passed but there was still another appearance. When Jesus was taken, he betrayed Him even after boasting that he would not. This is how we boast about ourselves sometimes. When you are around Jesus, it is better to allow Him to do the talking while you do the listening. “Jesus answered him, wilt thou lay down thy life for my sake? Verily, verily, I say unto thee, The cock shall not crow, till thou hast denied me thrice” (John 13:38).
The meaning of what Jesus says is interpreted by the level of your growth. Your lusts can speak to you, even in an audible voice. If it was the Lord that spoke to you and something went wrong, you will not be ashamed to bring it to spiritual authority. When it is however you, your pride will keep you from opening up. Locate where you missed it and turn. Return from that way because you can stop your conversion process if you continue on that path. Your salvation curriculum can be hampered.
God is saying to you that building you is more important than you building for Him. Jesus is speaking to us, He is the One that can speak the Father. “God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds” (Hebrews 1:1-2).
Why appearance? Why coming? His coming is not a physical coming; a soul must have been receiving life to see Him when He comes. He is bringing elements of God: the things that framed God and that is what He is coming to teach us. Every appearance is a teaching time and every teaching time is salvation time. Two things are involved in teaching time, one is repentance and the second is that you will be transformed and converted.
Every soul came to Him and His coming is to invest in souls. The end of that investment is that you would have been saved. Investments are going on through words the Son is speaking. As He is speaking, something is happening. We have all obeyed the Holy Ghost to a point but to obey the Son, you are given commandments; you must have heard things from His mouth, and in obeying that, you are gathering eternal salvation.
"And being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him" (Hebrews 5:9). All our souls came with their own writings and that is why He has to write on our souls. You do not wish or pray those writings away. If we look at it very keenly, we may discover that those wrong writings are in our heritage. If faith can have a transgenerational effect, so can infirmities.
There are things written in our souls that cannot be removed by ourselves, it takes the voice of His mouth. That voice comes to shake everything that the Father has not planted so that a new handwriting by the Holy Ghost can be written. And then we become pure, holy, sanctified, and undefiled.
Blessings!