Eternal Glorious Fountain Ministry (EGFM)
Programme: Believers' Convention 2024 (Day 7 - Morning Session)
Date: Saturday, 24th August, 2024
Minister: Pastor Shehu Makama
Transcript Excerpt
There are promises of ‘comings’ in the scripture and we must see them to believe that God is true. The promise of comings is the promise of the entire Godhead abiding with man; this is the greatest promise in the Bible. The Comforter came, never to go back. But there are still those who are skeptics of the coming of the Comforter till date. There are people who do not believe in the coming of the Holy Ghost or believe in His operations and manifestations. Whatever we do not believe in, there is a tendency for us to trivialize, scoff or mock it. When we do so, we hinder ourselves from the blessing of the coming.
The coming of the Holy Ghost is not the only coming Jesus talked about, He also talked about other comings. Jesus said that in His coming, there would be a kind of knowing. Knowing is not just an understanding, it is coming to the reality of being in Him, He being in the Father and the Father in Him. The coming of the Holy Ghost brought about the manifestation of the gifts of the Spirit. However, it is not just limited to that (John 16:13). Without the coming of the Holy Ghost, we cannot be guided into truth and walk in truth. Leading into truth is the working of the Spirit, not just by hearing revelations but also by leading us to live the life we have learnt. It will not be possible to live the life we have learnt without the Spirit of Truth.
Many people engage in activities like praying for long hours because we all want to be involved in activities and not growing spiritually. The emphasis of the coming of the Holy Spirit is to help us grow into the stature God wants for us; it is as He is leading and guiding us that this will happen. The Holy Spirit has to first come to abide in us, but the essence of His coming is to prepare the ground (the soul) for the next coming, which is the coming of the Son of God. This coming of Jesus is not a coming upon the earth, like the Holy Ghost’s coming. Rather, it is a coming within us.
As glorious as heaven is, the Godhead want to vacate heaven to dwell in man. The whole intent of their coming is to raise a tabernacle for their dwelling (Isa. 66:1). We cannot comprehend the great love of God in choosing that He wants to dwell in man. If Jesus promised that the Holy Ghost will come and He came, then as He has promised that He will come, He will surely come.
This coming is one in which He will manifest Himself, that is, He will carry out a work (John 14:21-22). The Holy Ghost has a work to raise Christ in us, yet with all His efforts, there are still spots and blame within us. There are some sins we cannot really understand. The Holy Spirit can deal with the body of sin, but it will take the coming of Christ to deal with the life of sin which is the testimony of iniquity in us. The disciples understood that Jesus was making reference to an inward coming, in order to perfect a work. He will not manifest Himself to anyone except those who are looking for Him.
The third coming is the coming of the Godhead to us (John 14:23). This coming is not just a cliche but a prophecy. There are people who may not understand or come into this; we should not allow such people to distract us.
“Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, [4] And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation. [5] For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water…” (2 Peter 3:3-5). These scoffers are walking after their own lusts because they have not subscribed to and accepted the first coming, which is the coming of the Holy Ghost as the Spirit of truth to deal with their lusts, prepare their hearts and make them Christs, which is the foundation of the coming of the Son of God. They know about the promise of the Son of God. But there was a probability that He had come and they did not know because they were walking according to their own lusts.
We have to allow the teachings of the gospel of Christ to do a thorough work in us so that lusts, spots and blames would not be found in us. Those things can hinder us from believing. When you do not believe that Jesus has come, you will not be a partaker of the programme of His coming. There is a likelihood that those scoffers are not unbelievers. They could be those in the church, but people who have not yielded to the coming of the Holy Ghost as the Spirit of Truth, to do a thorough work, raise up the foundation of Christ and bring about the anticipation of His coming.
“Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat?” (2 Pet. 3:12). This coming is a manifestation within. This means that things can remain the same outwardly, even when He is coming. Those who are ignorant of the coming are that way because they do not understand the coming. Some of the reasons why scoffers will say He did not come is because the earth and heavens are still intact, but this is talking about the constellations within us. These are the things He is coming to deal with within us. This is the sensor to the external constellation that principalities use to rule and govern our lives. This is the world within us and it must first go because it is the one that gave the prince of the air the right to rule over us.
Christ is a world within us that will ensure the coming of the Son of God. The essence of the coming of the Son of God is to deal with what gives principalities and powers an edge to continue to rule over mankind.
The entirety of the issue of Christianity is about the salvation of the soul. The soul is a masterpiece design of God that has the capacity to change from one dimension to another dimension. What determines who we are is the state of our soul; this is determined by the properties of the soul. What made us subject to the powers of darkness is because of the world within us. For the soul to be raised to another heaven, that heaven must first be implanted within us; this is the heaven of the Son of God. The coming of the Son of God will bring its own heaven and sanctuary because He is a heaven.
The heaven and the earth within us must change because what is within us cannot contain the Father. The coming of the word of God is so real to us and the bringing of judgment within us is an indicator of this. The old heaven and old earth has to pass away by His coming (2 Pet. 3:13). Our rejoicing is that His coming will bring the new earth and new heavens within. The new heavens and the new earth is what we have been looking for and it is what is coming (2 Pet. 3:14). Jesus cannot bring the Father until we have been made without blemish.
“And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” (1 Thess. 5:23). Preservation will take place! Preservation refers to the old heaven that has been taken away, by the virtue of the new heaven. Preservation has come and we will be made blameless! There is an assurance for us, if we continue faithfully in the prophecies and the word of God that has been coming. We can bank on His promise (1 Thess. 5:24).
Blessings!