Programme: United Kingdom Easter Retreat 2024
Date: Friday, 29th March 2024
Opening Charge: Pastor Oladotun Lamikanra
Pastor Dimeji and Pastor Fisayo Elugbadebo have been opening up the scriptures concerning the building that God desires to raise in us. There is also a work the adversary is doing to pull down God's work or building in man, but we know that he cannot succeed. God decided to allow him (being a just God) to plant his tree in the garden of Eden where the tree of life was, and He watered the two trees. Today, the two trees are bringing forth and performing as God desires; darkness and light are bringing forth their seeds. As this is happening, we should also know that there is an urgency in the spirit.
Acts 3:19-21
“Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord; [20] And he shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you: [21] Whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began.”
Reverend Kayode Oyegoke told us at the Anamnesis Prayer Meeting Grand Finale (held on 30th November, 2023) that Christ has now been given to us. There has been a tremendous blessing from the heavens since December. We have seen that there is no small meeting. We have been ordained by God to come into these things. These things are precious; it is unusual for us to hear them on earth. God has lifted us up to be able to hear these things. Apostle Paul knew a man who was taken to the third heavens to hear things that are not legal to be spoken to man upon the earth (2 Corin. 12:2-5). This "Easter Retreat" is a feast of fat things.
In John 6, Jesus spoke about the eating of His flesh and the drinking His blood, and that is the only meal for us to overcome sin and overthrow iniquity. When I joined the ministry, what made me enthusiastic was that our patriarch and matriarch spoke of sin as a thing of the past, as something that can be dealt with. This is no common statement in other gatherings. Without clearing sin and iniquity, they cannot begin to put into us the things of everlasting life. After Christ destroyed that which is sin, the life of the Father is meant to destroy iniquity. God intends to bring this age to an end, and the spirit that has infested the air of London needs to be chased away. It is by our walk and obedience that this will happen. Have no fear or doubt. Every word spoken in this retreat will contribute significantly to rewrite the history of the world.
Minister 2: Pastor Dimeji Elugbadebo
The project of God's house is “project rest”. That is the passion of the house and the thrust of the ministry of the New Testament, which is to secure a place of rest for God. This is the direction and the focus of ministry. The focus of ministry is to build God’s house in men. There is so much passion in God; God wants places He will dwell in this land. The project rest is the project of the New Testament and the ministries of the New Testament must understand this. The age long conflict in this dispensation is the conflict of inhabiting men. God wants to inhabit men and the adversary also wants to. Sin also wants to be domiciled forever in men. The warfare of evil spirits is that they want sin to have an everlasting/eternal placement in men such that man becomes a temple for the dominion of darkness. This is an age long conflict.
Isaiah 66:1
“Thus saith the Lord, The heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool: where is the house that ye build unto me? and where is the place of my rest?”
Footstool is the place of expression. Earth is not limited to the space called the earth; man is God's earth. God's idea of building is a house that will come into God. God is an heavenly entity and houses must be raised from the earth unto Him. The promises of God are promises of life. You cannot access promises outside covenants. Promises are instituted for covenants to be inherited. God wants us to cut covenants with life. Those covenants are the product of keeping commandments.
The ministry of the New Testament is supposed to give us the secrets to unlocking God’s commandments so that His house can be built. Covenants are tied to building; it is in your building that you are cutting covenant with God. Your building is connected to your walk. My walk is how I am being built. Walk is how your house is being raised from the earth to God. Your walk generates work. There are things that as I walk in, they become mine. God wants His promises to become ours. The promises of God are not ours until we walk in them.
Ephesians 2:10
“For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.”
God is building the soul of man. The soul is the walker. The soul is always walking, either in covenants that bring life or that bring death. The soul was designed as a machinery of God to bring man into his inheritances or promises. You are designed to obey something. Everything about you is designed to do something. Either you obey the covenants of the laws of God and cut covenant with God's promises or you obey laws of darkness that make sin and death your inheritance.
God has works that He has ordained we walk in. Your building is determined by your walk. Those works are the workings of God’s life. God's life is attached to works. All the life of God is attached to laws. You cannot unlock the secret of God's life without understanding the laws that wield that life. God is made up of laws. There are workings of laws in God that hold the secret of God's life. So it is very difficult to break God; God is a formidable house and wants us to be as formidable as He is. When we obey His laws, we can have His life.
God's life are buildings, they are towers. We have layers of dominion of life in God. God is a God of lives and there are degrees of building in God and He wants us to inherit them. God ordained that we should walk in them. Our walking in them is how we come into the inheritance of these promises which are called promises of His life.
Isaiah 66:1-2
“Thus saith the Lord, The heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool: where is the house that ye build unto me? and where is the place of my rest? [2] For all those things hath mine hand made, and all those things have been, saith the Lord: but to this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word.”
The house is what connects the rest. Without building, we cannot come into God's rest; and God cannot rest until we are built. That is the passion of true New Testament ministries. This is the desire of God— that God should find a place of rest. Man is the focus of the conflict of the age. This work is a first fruit work. The Lord wants to overrun the United Kingdom. God is interested in this place, in the white man. God loves this place and that is why we are gathered to receive patterns of God's life.
Upon a contrite spirit is a building (Isa.66:2). The building of Christ is the first building in the dominion of God. There are laws that frame that building; what the laws of Christ generate in a man is that to make a man poor and contrite, this is poverty in the spirit. That soul sees himself as not complete. The purpose of the building of Christ is to prepare the soul for the building of God. A soul that has cut covenant with the laws of Christ will be meek and contrite. Such a soul will have reverence and fear for the things of God. Fear is that attitude in a heart that is longing for God. Such a soul wants God’s house to be built. David was that kind of man. A Davidic heart is a contrite heart that will not rest until the house of God is built. God wants to raise many Davids in the United Kingdom.
Psalm 132:1
“Lord, remember David, and all his afflictions…”
These afflictions are the sufferings a man goes through to enter into the program of God. You cannot be built without sufferings. Those afflictions are the processes of your building. We should see suffering from a positive angle. Jesus learnt obedience by these things He suffered. He had afflictions by which stature was measured to Him. Your sufferings will pull God down, God responds to sufferings. Afflictions are how God will raise you; they are things He will see and be pleased with you.
Psalm 132:2-5
“How he sware unto the Lord, and vowed unto the mighty God of Jacob; [3] Surely I will not come into the tabernacle of my house, nor go up into my bed; [4] I will not give sleep to mine eyes, or slumber to mine eyelids, [5] Until I find out a place for the Lord, an habitation for the mighty God of Jacob.”
David is such a man that judges one. As a king that had fought battles and won, he was dissatisfied by the ark being in a tent. His heart broke into the desires of God. But God said he would not build Him a house but He will build a house. God needs a place in your heart, God wants to build a house in you. A habitation is built through time, they will first secure a place and then raise a building.
Psalm 132:6-8
“Lo, we heard of it at Ephratah: we found it in the fields of the wood. [7] We will go into his tabernacles: we will worship at his footstool. [8] Arise, O Lord, into thy rest; thou, and the ark of thy strength.”
The ark is a symbol of God's rest. When the ark is rising, a place of His rest has been built. An ark is the symbol of God’s everlasting covenant. It is the ark that will secure God a place of habitation. The ark is a demonstration of God's strength and God wants to raise men as arks. Evangelism is going to change in the last days. It does not take much to take a territory, you just need men that have been raised as arks, men who have become buildings of God. A sanctuary cannot take an ark so it is not enough to be a sanctuary man; this is a landmark in the spirit but it is not enough to secure God’s ark. To secure God’s ark, God needs men that would be built fully, who will not rest until their house is fully erected.
All the promises of God's life are promises of God's dominion. God wants all His dominion to be in men like Jesus was a tower of all the life of God. If Jesus is a pattern for us, it is possible for a man to house all the promises of God. Men can be yea and amen, having all the promises of God as buildings in them.
Psalm 132:9-11
“Let thy priests be clothed with righteousness; and let thy saints shout for joy. [10] For thy servant David's sake turn not away the face of thine anointed. [11] The Lord hath sworn in truth unto David; he will not turn from it; Of the fruit of thy body will I set upon thy throne.”
God is looking for a house of David that he will swear to concerning the building of His house. God has been looking for such a company for a long time. It is not easy to get such a company— a company that God will say to“I will rest in you people.” And God needs that. All of our passion for God and obediences is to bring us here. We need to come to a place in our walk with God, in our obedience, where God will swear to us. What are we living for? Because if we are not living for this, we are living for nothing.
The greatest thing that can happen to a man is for God to desire and swear that He would dwell in him. That is the real making. What can be compared to that? God wants a generation that He will swear to, “I will dwell in you”; this is not just corporate, it is personal. That is why we are gathered here.
Psalm 132:11
“The LORD hath sworn in truth unto David; he will not turn from it; Of the fruit of thy body will I set upon thy throne.”
This means that out of the house of David, God will bring forth a generation that will sit on the throne. The Davidic house is like a Zion church; so out of Zion, the company that will further become God’s house will be brought forth. God is looking for a Zion that He will bring fruit out. The fruit of Zion is the finest of Zion. They are the ones that have been able to finish the commandments of God; they have been able to cut all the covenants of God that are everlasting to bring God to commit himself to dwell in them. It is not easy to draw God to your house, the house must be built according to pattern. God does not dwell in any kind of house. There is nothing we can build with man’s hand that can bring God.
Even though God has sworn that He would dwell in man, it must not be any kind of man. It has to be a man that has cut covenant with all the patterns of God's life. They must be the finest of men that are built after the similitude of His life. Those are the people that will draw God to rest in them. It is not impossible but it is demanding. It is not impossible because with God, all things are possible. It will take your life; it is life for life.
You cannot want God’s life and still remain. There will be no percentage of your life left—that is the challenge. It is a challenge because we still like a small part of our lives. We want God to take 99 percent and leave 1 percent—to enjoy some trace of the present. The company of people that will sit on God's throne and will become God’s habitation will have no trace of the present in them. They will be purified from the present creation because nothing of the present can be formidable enough to house God. God will have to adopt us from the present and make us a vessel that can house the everlasting God.
Psalm 132:12
“If thy children will keep my covenant and my testimony that I shall teach them, their children shall also sit upon thy throne for evermore.”
"If thy children will keep my covenant” is the demand. “If” is conditional. This is the area where we need to pray “God help me” because this thing is not dependent on God—God desires it but will we keep His covenant? Thy children here are David’s children: they are sons and daughters of Zion. Will they keep God's covenant? They can teach us things that we will not keep and because of that, God will not be able to dwell.
When they teach us and we keep them, then God is building His house in us. Those are children/offsprings in everlasting life. The finest of everlasting offsprings are those who will sit on the throne. In everlasting life, there are sons of the living God and sons of the true God. We have to finish the commandment of everlasting life to become true. God must be true in us for us to be His people house.
Zion is the elect of God for the project of God’s rest. This is a Zion company. Anyone here is a project of God's rest. Everyone here is ordained to be God's house.
Blessings!