Eternal Glorious Fountain Ministry (EGFM)
Programme: Lekki Soul Centre (LSC)
Date: Wednesday, 25th May 2022
Ministering: Rev. Kayode Oyegoke
Satan used the fear of death to culture a conversation of bondage on all mankind (Heb. 2:14-15). Men became subject to serving him that has the power of death. According to Revelation 1:18, Jesus said “I…have the keys of hell and of death” which means that Satan no longer has the power, though he still kills. Satan had power of death, that is, when Satan killed, there was no solution to death. It remained so for thousands of years and as a result, he used this power to govern the universe, which is our earth plane. The whole of the earth serves death rather than God. However, through our Lord Jesus Christ, the power of death was broken.
Right now, the problem of mankind is ignorance (Heb. 5:2). The reason for God's investment in raising a man in the person of our Lord Jesus Christ is for us not to continue in ignorance. God gave us a great High Priest so that man can get delivered from the bondage of the fear of death. When scripture talks about death, it does not refer to physical death. Death talks about the gap that the devil builds between God and man, making God so far and unreachable. Even when that man begins to have an awareness of God, he remains crippled, powerless, and unable to reach God fully.
Prior to now, sanctification was taught as having an experience of peace and renewed heart commitment to God which comes as a result of prayers. However, sanctification is not about feeling good. It is not about the piety or the seriousness we exhibit, neither is it in the long hours of prayer to God. Rather, sanctification is separation. For one to be called sanctified, there are things a man ought to be separated or sanctified from. Sanctification is churned out of the activity of a dimension of God’s house called the sanctuary. Sanctification is deep and it takes time.
It is not every word of God that is the word of His grace (Acts 20:32). The word of His grace must be given to us for constructing in us the stature of a personality that is sanctified. The word builds up a man and commits to such a man an inheritance. It is not all sanctified Christians that this inheritance will be committed to.
“…Delivering thee from the people, and from the Gentiles, unto whom now I send thee…" Acts 26:17. Paul was an Israelite and a Roman. So, he needed to be taught deliverance from the realm of men and how not to look like men. The nature of the deliverance is to open the eyes of the people and to turn them from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God. Sanctification is by faith (Acts 26:18). The gospel of Christ is the word of His grace (Rom. 1:16). When a man lives by faith, he is undergoing the process of sanctification. Faith is a separating tool.
The purpose of the word of His grace is to bring one into a faith experience. This is not just hearing; however, the world of experience is open to the person. It is in that place of experience that one inherits or learns how to live because the purpose of faith is for living. Without living, there is no cleansing. Cleansing is not by prayer. There is a washing that comes by prayer but there are sins that will never go by prayer. It comes by living because sin is also a kind of living. You have to live a life that will alter sin. Faith is the first blessing against sin, and this is why there is no remedy anywhere against sin except faith is revealed.
To be sanctified, the power of God which is the gospel of Christ (Rom. 1:16) must be preached to you. When we receive faith, we receive life and are given the opportunity to escape the hold of Satan. Satan constituted bondage in lifestyle. We need the blessing of God’s grace for the process of sanctification. The word of His grace is a remedy that will not come by another means but by God's method and way. They must be revealed. Anything that is not revealed is lower than Satan's tool. It is weak.
Grace comes by Jesus' design. Living by faith is responding to the constructive work of God. Without a building in our souls, we cannot push sin away. There is no remission of sin without building. However, the building against iniquity is a different edifice (Job 22:22-23). You cannot be called the sanctified child of God when you are a baby. You must have a building. Those who are sanctified grow in the Lord over time. When you are sanctified, it will take a lot to lose it. Sanctified people are rooted and built up in the Lord.
Sanctification is constructive. People have to be built over time before they can be said to have been sanctified. A good person in God’s terms is one who lives by faith. God likes good people. God waited for generations to find a man in Joseph that will not leave Mary or disparage her for being pregnant (Matt. 1:18-20). Most ‘righteous’ people today would have reacted in a different manner from Joseph. The things of God need a heart that has been rightly conditioned. God is looking for a heart that can do His things. Often, our choice of men fail because we judge wrongly (1 Sam. 16:7).
The issue of the heart is one that requires Eternal sense. It is Eternal judgment that can discern a heart completely. It will take God to search a heart. When the heart is not in the right condition, it will not allow God. Satan must have studied man’s heart to give him something that would make his heart love darkness rather than light (John 3:19). He presented it to commit man. Man loved it and made covenant with the darkness such that man’s deeds became evil. Therefore, man became unwilling to take or agree with the freedom that God had to offer.
“And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief corner stone…” (Eph. 2:20). The sanctified building is Christ Jesus the Lord. When the building of a believer begins, the first thing we would see is the foundation of the apostles and prophets (Acts 2:42). Without building, a person cannot experience salvation. The building commences at the foundation which would be built upon. In the wisdom of scriptures, foundation is a pattern for building. The things the apostles and the prophets carried within them is the foundation.
True Christianity has to touch the foundation. A true practicing Christian is one who is practicing Christ. The first place to start is the foundation. The foundation is about teaching those things that made up the apostles and the prophets. It has to do with solidifying the life of Christ in a believer such that the believer and the foundational stone (Christ) would become one. The believer would be powerful, having been taught the constituents of the foundation. Every foundation and building come by revelation. Jesus is not the only cornerstone. The apostles are also cornerstones but they all rest on the main cornerstone. This means that the apostles are of the same foundation that Jesus is.
“In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord…” (Eph. 2:21). To grow is to gain height. There is a height the building should attain. The Lord is slightly different from Christ. Christ is the beginning of Jesus. The Lord is another posture of Christ that is higher than the first stone that Jesus is. The Lord is found in the building while Christ is found underneath the building. The height of the Lord is the perfect man. That perfect man with his building is what is called sanctification. A person that does not have this framework is not sanctified. A sanctified person must know revelation. God is strict about this because these are the things that guide Him. God is a God of doctrine; doctrine is His life.
“In whom ye also are built together for an habitation of God through the Spirit.” (Eph. 2:22). There is another building again which is the habitation of God. The Son of God is the habitation of God through the Spirit. Peter witnessed to the fact that some in the early church had become a spiritual house (1 Pet. 2:5); though not yet a divine house. They were called holy because of their stature. What makes one genuinely holy is the building of holiness. If one does not have the building of holiness, then such is not holy yet. A person can be holy by character, but this is different from being holy by building. Habits of holiness do not go as deep as the building of holiness. There are things that a building of holiness can do that a person with holiness character cannot do. This is why we need to be exposed to the ministry of Jesus which is the ministry of building (Matt. 16:18).
Evil spirits hate building. When a ministry is raised to build Christians, spirits will rise to stop the building. Anytime you are not being built, it means you are not in the very land where you ought to be. Real building by men sent from God takes time. When you start building, spirits will fight you so you can get discouraged and leave. The winning of the word is in your staying power. The nature of our building is systematic. The same person that will have the foundation of Christ is the one that will become the temple of the Lord. Then such also will come into the habitation of God.
The purpose of sanctification is to have the name of the Father declared unto you (Heb. 2:11-12). Sanctification is the process by which God gives children to Jesus. Children here are not baby Christians. They are people that can take the teaching of the High Priest, people who have been trained to be childlike in mind, who will not doubt the High Priest. These are the people Jesus can say He is not ashamed of. It is not every believer that Jesus can say this about in the realm of the spirit.
“…They that were foolish took their lamps, and took no oil with them: But the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps.” (Matt. 25:1-4) Oil in the vessel is not talking about a physical vessel; it is oil in a person. You must have enough oil in your person to pour in the lamp for it to continue to burn. For them to have taken lamps, it means it is a service of the night. It is an entrance into the sanctuary: the worship of fire and the worship with fire. The worship of fire is a sanctuary worship. These virgins had their lantern burning and oil in the vessel in case the one in the lantern finishes. It means their vessels should have enough oil. They took their journey to go meet the bridegroom.
“While the bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered and slept. And at midnight there was a cry made, Behold, the bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet him. Then all those virgins arose, and trimmed their lamps.” (Matt. 25:5-7) While the bridegroom tarried, they got to a point where they all slumbered and slept. It is customary to slumber at night. Jesus was not opposed to it. The slumbering here is what will help you. It is a season where the oil in your vessel is now needed after you wake up. You use the oil in the lamp while you are sleeping. When you wake up, the oil in the vessel is needed.
“And the foolish said unto the wise, Give us of your oil; for our lamps are gone out.” (Matt. 25:8). The oil had gone out despite the trimming of the lamp as the lamp was still burning while they were asleep, which showed they had some strength, but it was little. The problem was that they did not have what it would take to meet the Lord. The sleep they went through was not the sleep of death. Instead, it was because of the journey they were undertaking, passing from the sanctuary into the divine. One will need aid and enough spirit to make that journey. Oil ran out, and they went back to fetch it. This is not the rapture. This process is too long to depict the rapture. It talks about a season when the Lord will come to harvest beings in the sanctuary. So, it is possible to get to the holy place and not be taken.
“But the wise answered, saying, Not so; lest there be not enough for us and you: but go ye rather to them that sell, and buy for yourselves.” (Matt. 25:9). The wise virgins refused to share their oils because they needed the oil to journey with the Lord. All those journeys need oil. So, we need oil in our lamps and our vessels.
The believer has two vessels: soul and body. The believer needs enough life in their flesh and soul. What is being burnt is the life of Christ that the believer has stored over time. The Spirit of God that was stored is what gives illumination for living. In Hebrews 10:38-39, some believers wanted to turn back; it was those who had issues with oil. They became weary. The coming of the Bridegroom is to take them into the day. The light that is used in the sanctuary is a burning light. It has seven candlesticks. Those who use the sun and moon see less than those who use the light of the sanctuary.
There are two veils that make a believer a virgin to sit on the throne. The first veil is the sanctuary. Going through the first veil, one becomes a virgin. But this is a virgin with the burning light. The Bridegroom will wait for such believer at the veil into the Holiest of All. The High Priest pierces through this veil to take the believer (that has gone through the sanctuary) in, to be made another kind of virgin.
“These are they which were not defiled with women; for they are virgins. These are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth. These were redeemed from among men, being the firstfruits unto God and to the Lamb.” (Rev. 14:4). Those beings who sat on the throne were virgins, undefiled with women. They did not start as virgins; they were washed clean till it appeared like they had known no one before. If they were not virgins of the Lord, they would not have been able to follow the Lamb wherever He goes.
When we got filled with the Holy Ghost, we were not virgins. In fact, Satan infiltrated the church and started defiling the saints’ souls through some ministers. There are things that would spoil a believer’s virginity. When one is taught wrongly, that person is tampered with. The Lord will not accept such a person. The virgin should depend on Him who will lead her on. That is a state of absolute dependence. When one is not a virgin in their soul, such a person will raise an argument with the Lord.
Jesus was not ashamed to call the virgins in Revelation, brethren. He also called them children (Heb. 2:11-13). These children refer to all Christians who have migrated and moved close to where the High Priest picks those He would marry. That place is the Sanctuary. They become children there. A virgin is a child.
Jesus destroyed him that has the power of death (Heb. 2:14). So, He can now bring deliverance to the children. Even though they were sanctified, they were still subject to bondage. These children were ignorant of some things as a result of their level. This is why they needed the High Priest, who would succour them to take away the ignorance.
Deliverance means redemption. The Lamb will redeem them from something that held them all their lifetime. The programme of fear is a lifetime programme Satan wrote to keep men in bondage. The believer must have been built and sanctified to receive deliverance from this bondage. It bores down to life and at times one might refuse it. But when the believer is virgin enough, he will not argue with instructions that the Lord brings.
"The oath which He sware to our father Abraham, That He would grant unto us, that we being delivered out of the hand of our enemies might serve Him without fear…" (Luke 1:73-74). God must never be served with fear (of death). "Fear" here is the same fear mentioned in Hebrews 2:15 “And deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.” Fear is when service is done under the regard of Satan. It is when one respects Satan because of the benefits tied to measuring life the way he presents it. This is true deliverance and it is only the Lamb that can teach us how to fear God.
The sins that the High Priest wants to make reconciliation for are the sins that the sanctuary children are still vulnerable to (Hebrews 2:17). These are sins that originate because of the bondage of the fear of death. But when they are taught not to fear anymore, they would no longer commit sin again. Jesus overcame temptation because God heard Him while He was praying in Gethsemane. God heard Him "in that He feared" (Heb. 5:7). This fear was not the fear of death but the fear not to offend God. He did not want to break from God. He prayed not to fall and God kept Him all through. An angel came to strengthen Him (Luke 22:43). This was how He overcame.
Jesus is the builder of the house with the capacity of God (Hebrews 3:1-4). Men of the sanctuary are about to be made a divine house. God wants to build a divine edifice– someone that can house God. This is power at work. The key to breaking temptation is to be built. Building is the answer to the next separation. There is something the High Priest is doing by succouring us (Heb. 2:18). He wants to build us. Jesus as our High Priest is presently building us up against fear. If not, we would continue to fear.
Grace differs. The closer a man is to God, the stronger the grace becomes. The grace required for the last building of God is strong. This is why there has to be houses before you can raise the house of God. The last work is the last building. It is the last building of God that can resist the fear of death. So, a man who is standing is doing so by grace; not just the grace given but the grace that is in the constitution of the building. It is a grace that is forever with a man, grace that has become a nature. Thus, we are not lacking but having grace.
A man cannot rest if he does not have the capacity to. There is a rest that a high priest practices that a priest cannot get done. So also, there's a rest that a high priest does that a Levite cannot. A Levite cannot be put in the place of a high priest because he would offend God. He won't take the discipline of rest because he has got no building for it; he is not wired for it. To enter into God's rest, you need a building. You need a building that would make you rest.
A man needs power to wait but such powers have departed from mankind. Things must be restored to men to practice the vocation of waiting. To rest, the word of God is needed (Heb. 4:12). The purpose of the word of God is to take out things that would not allow a man to rest. That is why it is sharp. Being "sharp" is not to tear the devil but to take out things of the devil. Hebrews 4:12 tells us that the word of God is what makes a high priest. It is the word of God that will teach one how to rest. It will quiet the mind and take out the enemy. There are things inside us–thoughts and intents of the hearts–that would not allow us to rest (Heb. 4:12). Satan placed them there. The bondage of fear keeps us busy so we are unable to rest.
Noah found grace (Gen. 6:8). We have also found grace for this season on earth. The commensurate grace for what is happening on earth right now is the grace in Hebrews 4. It is the highest grace for now. It is all encompassing. It is grace for everything. Noah found grace and he built (Gen. 6:22). When a man finds grace, he needs to begin to build. Noah built an ark. So, the purpose of the grace coming to us as a company is for us to build an ark. The ark is the tabernacle of God. It is the house of God.
Summary
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Satan used the fear of death to culture a conversation of bondage on all mankind (Heb. 2:14-15). However, through our Lord Jesus Christ, the power of death has been broken.
-
Death talks about the gap that the devil builds between God and man, making God far and unreachable.
-
Sanctification is not about the piety or the seriousness we exhibit; neither is it in the long hours of prayer to God. Rather, sanctification is separation.
-
The word of His grace (gospel of Christ) must be given to us for constructing in us the stature of a personality that is sanctified (Acts 20:32).
-
Faith is the first blessing against sin, and this is why there is no remedy anywhere against sin except faith is revealed.
-
Living by faith is responding to the constructive work of God. Without a building in our souls, we cannot push sin away. There is no remission of sin without building.
-
(Eph. 2:22). There is another building again which is the habitation of God (against iniquity). The Son of God is the habitation of God through the Spirit.
-
The purpose of sanctification is to have the name of the Father declared unto you (Heb. 2:11-12). Sanctification is the process by which God gives children to Jesus.
-
The purpose of the word of God is to take out things that would not allow a man to rest. To enter into God's rest, you need a building.
-
The purpose of grace coming to us as a company is for us to build an ark which is the tabernacle/house of God.